The Local Governors of the Tenth Upper Egyptian Province

The lives of kings and their families are too often the focus of the study of ancient Egyptian history. Wolfram Grajetzki turns his attention instead to the local governors of the Tenth Upper Egyptian nome in an attempt to reconstruct their line up to the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty.

- Wolfram Grajetzki

The Tenth Upper Egyptian province, known as the Wadjet (‘cobra’) nome, is right in the middle of Egypt, about 30 km south of Asyut and 30 km north of Akhmim (see map opposite, top). The province was never particularly important in Egyptian history but the region was fertile; people living here were most often prosperous. Therefore, unsurprisingly, the province is full of significant archaeological sites, the most important being a series of cemeteries stretching from Qau el-Kebir (often just called Qau) in the South to Badari in the North. However, it is only at Hemamieh and Qau el-Kebir that we find monumental, decorated rock-cut tombs. Although unique monuments, none of these are on the regular tourist trails, and they are less well known than those at Beni Hasan or Aswan. The other cemeteries were mainly used by the local farming population. These local burials were simple but still contained many objects. They are often overlooked by Egyptologists, but can provide much evidence about how common people lived.

The main town within the province was Tjebu, today known as Qau el-Kebir. The Napeoleonic expedition recorded the well-preserved remains of a Ptolemaic temple at the site; however shortly after the expedition, parts of the temple were demolished during the building of a palace at Asyut, and the remaining parts were washed away by a devastating Nile flood in 1891.

Early History