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Meru was a high-ranking official at the court
of the 11th Dynasty King Mentuhotep II, who reigned until 2004
BC and who, like Meru, was buried at the necropolis of North
Asasif, the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
Meru's rock-hewn tomb was restored by the Polish Centre for
Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw and
Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.
"This is the first site from such an early period in Western
Thebes to be made accessible to visitors," the ministry
statement quoted Fathi Yassin, General Director of Antiquities
in Upper Egypt, as saying.
The tomb, which faced the procession avenue to Mentuhotep II's
temple, contains a corridor leading to an offering chapel with a
niche for a statue of the deceased. A burial shaft descends to a
burial chamber with a sarcophagus.
"This is the only decorated room of the tomb, with an unusual
decoration of painting on lime plaster," Yassin said.
Meru's tomb had been known since at least the mid-19th century,
according to the Polish Egyptian archaeological mission. Italian
conservators cleaned some of the wall paintings in 1996.
Some of the Middle Kingdom's most prominent officials were
buried at North Asasif, the statement said.
(Reporting by Patrick Werr; Editing by Frances Kerry)
(Photo: Egyptian officials inaugurate the 4,000-year-old tomb of
Meru, the oldest site accessible to the public on Luxor's West
Bank, home to some of its most spectacular Pharaonic monuments
including the Valley of the Kings, after restoration by a Polish
mission in Luxor and Egyptian archaeologists, by the Egyptian
Tourism Ministry of Antiquities, Egypt February 9, 2023. The
Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities/Handout via REUTERS)
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