The
Theban Necropolis
The Theban Necropolis is a necropolis on the west bank of the Nile, opposite Thebes (Luxor) in Upper Egypt. It was used for ritual burials for much of the Pharaonic period, especially during the New Kingdom.
Mortuary temples
* Deir el-Bahri ...
is located on the west bank of the
Nile
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest ...
, opposite
Luxor
Luxor ( ar, الأقصر, al-ʾuqṣur, lit=the palaces) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of ''Thebes''.
Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-a ...
, in
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
. As well as the more famous royal tombs located in the
Valley of the Kings
The Valley of the Kings ( ar, وادي الملوك ; Late Coptic: ), also known as the Valley of the Gates of the Kings ( ar, وادي أبوا الملوك ), is a valley in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th ...
and the
Valley of the Queens
The Valley of the Queens ( ar, وادي الملكات ) is a site in Egypt, where the wives of pharaohs were buried in ancient times. It was known then as Ta-Set-Neferu, meaning "the place of beauty". It was most famous for being the burial site ...
, there are numerous other tombs, more commonly referred to as Tombs of the Nobles (Luxor), the burial places of some of the powerful courtiers and persons of the ancient city.
There are at least 415 cataloged tombs, designated TT for Theban Tomb. There are other tombs whose position has been lost, or for some other reason do not conform to this classification. See for instance the
List of MMA Tombs. Theban tombs tended to have clay
funerary cone
Funerary cones were small cones made from clay that were used in ancient Egypt, almost exclusively in the Theban Necropolis. The items were placed over the entrance of the chapel of a tomb. Early examples have been found from the Eleventh Dynasty ...
s placed over the entrance of the tomb chapels. During the
New Kingdom they were inscribed with the title and name of the tomb owner, sometimes with short prayers. Of the 400 recorded sets of cones, only about 80 come from cataloged tombs.
The numbering system was first published
Arthur Weigall
Arthur Edward Pearse Brome Weigall (1880 – 3 January 1934) was an English Egyptologist, stage designer, journalist and author whose works span the whole range from histories of Ancient Egypt through historical biographies, guide-books, popula ...
's 1908 ''Report on the Tombs of Shêkh Abd’ el Gûrneh and el Assasîf'' (up to TT 45-100) and then more fulsomely in
Alan Gardiner
Sir Alan Henderson Gardiner, (29 March 1879 – 19 December 1963) was an English Egyptologist, linguist, philologist, and independent scholar. He is regarded as one of the premier Egyptologists of the early and mid-20th century.
Personal life
G ...
and
Arthur Weigall
Arthur Edward Pearse Brome Weigall (1880 – 3 January 1934) was an English Egyptologist, stage designer, journalist and author whose works span the whole range from histories of Ancient Egypt through historical biographies, guide-books, popula ...
's 1913 ''A Topographical Catalogue of the Private Tombs of Thebes'' (TT 1 - 252). This was followed by
Reginald Engelbach
Reginald Engelbach (9 July 1888 – 26 February 1946) was an English Egyptologist and engineer. He is mainly known for his works in the Egyptian Museum of Cairo, above all the compilation of a register of artifacts belonging of the museum. ...
's ''A Supplement to the Topographical Catalogue of the Private Tombs of Thebes'' (TT 253 to 334), extended further in
Bernard Bruyère
Bernard Bruyère (10 November 1879 – 4 December 1971) was a French Egyptologist.
Born in Besançon, Bruyère devoted a large part of his career to archaeological excavations of Deir el-Medina and the scientific publication of his findings at t ...
,
N. de Garis Davies
The Egyptologists Nina M. Davies (6 January 1881 – 21 April 1965) and Norman de Garis Davies (1865–5 November 1941) were a married couple of illustrators and copyists who worked in the early and mid-twentieth century drawing and recording paint ...
,
Ahmed Fakhry
Ahmed Fakhry ( ar, أحمد فخري) (born in Faiyum Governorate in 1905 – 1973) was an Egyptian archaeologist who worked in the Western desert of Egypt (including in 1940 dig at El Haiz, and then at Siwa), and also in the necropolis at ...
, and later in
Bertha Porter
Bertha Porter (1852-1941) was an English biographer and bibliographer known for her editorial role in the compilation of the ''Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings''.
Early life
Bertha Porter wa ...
's ''Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings''.
In their publication, Gardiner and Weigall acknowledged that the numbers do not follow any topographical order, and are due the order in which the tombs were discovered.
A Topographical Catalogue of the Private Tombs of Thebes
p.10: "The numbers employed in this Catalogue are the same as will be found marked outside the actual tombs; it is greatly hoped that these will meet with general acceptance. It will be noted that the numbering follows no topographical order. It will pain the pedantically-minded — I confess it is not wholly pleasant even to myself — that, for example, tomb 42 should adjoin no 110, and access be had to 145 from 17. Such incongruities are for the most part due to the succession in which the tombs were discovered; in practice they do not in any way impair the utility of the numbering. The purpose in assigning numbers to the tombs is to provide a series of abbreviations to be used in quotation, and so long as the numbers given are easily referred to in a printed Catalogue it matters little what order they follow. Any attempt to modify our numbering at the present juncture would introduce serious confusion into the already somewhat chaotic literature of Egyptology. Scholars are therefore begged to make shift with it, whatever its imperfections."
TT1–TT100
TT101-TT200
TT201–TT300
TT301–TT400
TT401–TT415
Other tombs
Uncategorized
* Bab el-Gasus
Bab el-Gasus ( arz, باب الجسس, bāb el-gasus, lit=Gate of the Priests pies
A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts ( pecan pie), brown sugar ( sugar pie), sweet ...
p. 17: "Daressy’s moniker ‘Tomb of the Priests’ likely finds its origins in the local traditions of Sheikh abd el Gurnah. Indeed, this phrase could be tran ...
Unknown location
Dra' Abu el-Naga'
El-Khokha
Sheikh Abd el-Qurna
Qurnet Murai
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Theban Tombs
Theban Necropolis
*
Theban
Theban Tombs
The Theban Necropolis is located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite Luxor, in Egypt. As well as the more famous royal tombs located in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, there are numerous other tombs, more commonly referred ...
Ancient Egypt-related lists