is an

ancient Egyptian tomb The ancient Egyptians had an elaborate set of funerary practices that they believed were necessary to ensure their immortality after death. These rituals included mummifying the body, casting magic spells, and burials with specific grave good ...

. Located in

El-Assasif El-Assasif ( ar, العساسيف) is a necropolis near Luxor on the West Bank at Thebes, Egypt, Upper Egypt. It is located in the dry bay that leads up to Deir el-Bahari and south of the necropolis of Dra' Abu el-Naga'. El-Assasif contains burial ...

, it is part of 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 ...

on the west bank of the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin language, 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 ...

, opposite to

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 ...

. The tomb is the burial place of the ancient Egyptian

Padiamenope Padiamenope (also known by the hellenised form Petamenophis) was an ancient Egyptian royal scribe and chief lector priest between the late 25th Dynasty and the early 26th Dynasty, known mainly for his immense tomb, one of the largest ever buil ...

, who was Prophet and Chief

Lector Priest A lector priest was a priest in ancient Egypt who recited spells and hymns during temple rituals and official ceremonies. Such priests also sold their services to laymen, reciting texts during private apotropaic rituals or at funerals.Ritner, Robe ...

during the 26th Dynasty. Although it was open when Richard Pocoke visited the area in 1737 (he thought it was a subterranean palace) it was more fully examined and excavated in 1881 by

Johannes Dümichen Johannes Dümichen (15 October 1833, Weißholz bei Großglogau7 February 1894, Strasbourg) was a German Egyptologist. Biography Dümichen was born near Glogau. He studied philology and theology in Berlin and Breslau. Subsequently he became a ...

from the University of Strasbourg. Located not far from

Deir el-Bahari Deir el-Bahari or Dayr al-Bahri ( ar, الدير البحري, al-Dayr al-Baḥrī, the Monastery of the North) is a complex of mortuary temples and tombs located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the city of Luxor, Egypt. This is a part of ...

, it is larger than most of the more famous

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: ''pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the an ...

s' tombs that are found in the

necropolis A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead". The term usually im ...

. It is composed of twenty-two rooms connected by long corridors and distributed on three levels extending twenty metres below the level of the ground. The tomb owner served one or more pharaohs during the 25th to 26th Dynasty time period, and amassed enough wealth and power to build a labyrinthine tomb covered with hundreds of metres of

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

es and

hieroglyph A hieroglyph ( Greek for "sacred carvings") was a character of the ancient Egyptian writing system. Logographic scripts that are pictographic in form in a way reminiscent of ancient Egyptian are also sometimes called "hieroglyphs". In Neoplatoni ...

s. The tomb was and still remains the largest known non-royal site in the necropolis as of 2008. TT33 consists of 22 rooms, reached by flights of steps, ramps and vertical shafts. During 2004–2005, a joint team from the IFAO (French Institute of Oriental Archaeology, Cairo, Egypt) and the

University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. The French university traces its history to the ea ...

explored the chambers of the huge tomb. The official reopening was attended by notable officials from Egypt's

Supreme Council of Antiquities The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) was a department of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture from 1994 to 2011. It was the government body responsible for the conservation, protection and regulation of all antiquities and archaeological excavatio ...

and other archaeologists working in the area. Further planned work will concentrate on the cleaning, restoration and conservation of the tomb, which has been engraved with many important scripts, such as

Pyramid Texts The Pyramid Texts are the oldest ancient Egyptian funerary texts, dating to the late Old Kingdom. They are the earliest known corpus of ancient Egyptian religious texts. Written in Old Egyptian, the pyramid texts were carved onto the subterranea ...

, the ''

Book of the Dead The ''Book of the Dead'' ( egy, 𓂋𓏤𓈒𓈒𓈒𓏌𓏤𓉐𓂋𓏏𓂻𓅓𓉔𓂋𓅱𓇳𓏤, ''rw n(y)w prt m hrw(w)'') is an ancient Egyptian funerary text generally written on papyrus and used from the beginning of the New Kingdom ...

'' or the Great Netherworld Books (e.g.

Amduat The Amduat ( egy, jmj dwꜣt, literally "That Which Is In the Afterworld", also translated as "Text of the Hidden Chamber Which is in the Underworld" and "Book of What is in the Underworld"; ar, كتاب الآخرة, Kitab al-Akhira) is an imp ...

Book of Gates The Book of Gates is an ancient Egyptian funerary text dating from the New Kingdom. It narrates the passage of a newly deceased soul into the next world, corresponding to the journey of the sun through the underworld during the hours of the night. ...

and

Book of Caverns The Book of Caverns is an important ancient Egyptian netherworld book of the New Kingdom.Hornung (1999) p.83 Like all other netherworld books, it is also attested on the inside of kings’ tombs for the benefit of the deceased. It describes the ...

.) The French Epigraphical Mission in Tomb TT 3

copies and edits the texts of the monument. It is directed by Claude Traunecker (University of Strasbourg) and Isabelle Régen (University of Montpellier 3 - Paul Valéry) (co-director). Since 2018, the works of the French Archaeological Mission in Asasif (IFAO, University of Strasbourg, CNRS, under the supervision of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities) revealed a significant archaeological deposit from the early 18th dynasty inside the enclosure of

(TT 33). For example, in November of that year, 1000

ushabti The ushabti (also called shabti or shawabti, with a number of variant spellings) was a funerary figurine used in ancient Egyptian funerary practices. The Egyptological term is derived from , which replaced earlier , perhaps the nisba of "' ...

and an intact sarcophagus of a female mummy called Thuya was discovered, the latter dating to the 18th Dynasty. In October 2019, the Ministry of Antiquities announced the discovery of 30 mummies found within the vicinity of the tomb. The mummy cache consists of 23 adult males, 5 adult females, and 2 children, all of whom are assumed to be connected to Theban priesthood. The coffins were stacked on top of each other and upon opening, the mummies were found to be well preserved with their wrappings intact. Mostafa Waziri, general secretary of Supreme Council of Antiquities, stated that the tomb is the largest cache found in a century, with previous noteworthy caches being

DB320 The Royal Cache, technically known as TT320 (previously referred to as DB320), is an Ancient Egyptian tomb located next to Deir el-Bahri, in the Theban Necropolis, opposite the modern city of Luxor. It contains an extraordinary collection of mum ...

KV35 Tomb KV35 is the tomb of Pharaoh Amenhotep II located in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt. Later, it was used as a cache for other royal mummies. It was discovered by Victor Loret in March 1898. Layout and history It has a dog's leg shape, ...

, and

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 ...

See also

References

Further reading