Meir

The hieroglyphic
name of Meir

The contemporary village of Meir is placed due west of the town el-Qusiya in Middle Egypt. To the southern of the village is the archaeological site, the  necropolis of the former capital of Nome XIV of Upper Egypt.

The tombs of Meir

Meir Location

Very little is noted about this site, which was extensively broken in the nineteenth century and heedlessly excavated in the twentieth century. There is not even an accurate site  plan, but some of the the Old and Middle Kingdom tombs are nicely recorded in issues. Decorated with strong reliefs, these rock-cut tombs were inscribed in the low  hills westward of Meir. A First Intermediate Period cemetery perchance  gone  on  the desert plain to the east.

Group A of Meir tombs

Although  finds  at  the  site  run  in  date  from  the  Old  Kingdom  to  Graeco-Roman times, the archeologic record is very poor for most periods except the Old and Middle Kingdom. From these periods are five densities of rock-cut tombs, designated A, B, C, D and E, in an order from north to south. The most serious Old Kingdom group is A, where the finely decorated and well extended tombs of the chief priests of the cult of Hathor of Qusiya are placed. Tomb A2, of Pepi-ankh, is well knew for its unusually detailed representation of the funerary ritual. Groups B and C contain tombs of the 12th Dynasty,  with  lively  and  passing  well  carved  reliefs  and  paintings,  accepting  the famous  ancestor  list  of  the  governor  (nomarch)  Ukhhotep  III  (Tomb  B4).  Tomb  C1, belonging to Ukhhotep IV, is special in that, apart from the tomb owner, only females are showed on its walls. Substitute tombs here have likewise developed a high quantity of Middle Kingdom coffins graphic with funerary texts famous as the Coffin Texts.

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·        Alexandria
·        Alexandria Battle 47 B.C.E
·        Khety I
·        Khety II
·        Khety III
·        Altar
·        Mehy
·        Neferhotep (Priest)
·        Khian