The beautiful and highly colourful wall paintings in the tomb of Menna and the tomb of Nakht emphasise rural life in 18th-dynasty Egypt. Menna was an estate inspector and Nakht was an astronomer of Amun. Their finely detailed tombs show scenes of farming, hunting, fishing and feasting. Although this tomb is so small that only a handful of visitors are able to squeeze in at a time, the walls have some of the best-known examples of Egyptian tomb paintings.
The tomb of Amenemope is one of the most recent to be opened for visitors. The large funerary complex has previously been open since antiquity and has lost most of its decoration. Among the more recent materials found when archaeologists arrived were early Coptic manuscripts and Howard Carter’s copy of the Spectator from 1912. Amenemope (c 1186–1069 BC) lived in the reigns of Ramses III, IV and V. His titles included Third Prophet of Amon and Greatest of the Seers of Re in Thebes. The sarcophagus in the upper corridor was dragged from the lower burial chamber.
The tomb of Nakht has a small museum area in its first chamber.
