Description
El Minya Individual Two-day Trip Hurghada is an individual two-day sightseeing tour to El Minya from Hurghada! We recommend the trip because it allows tourists to see many ancient Egyptian attractions and learn a lot about the history of ancient Egypt!
Highlights on El Minya Individual Two-Day Trip from Hurghada
- Tuna El-Gebel.
- Tell Al Amarna.
- Lunch at a restaurant.
- And Beni Hassan Tombs.
Trip program in El-Minya from Hurghada
- A Landious Travel representative will pick you up from the hotel in Hurghada at around 02:00 A.m.
- After picking you up, the bus (limousine or minibus) leaves for El-Minya. The journey from the centre of Hurghada to El-Minya takes about 4 hours.
- After that, you drive to Tell El Amarna. King Ikhnaton and his wife, Queen Nefertiti, founded this city to cult the new god Aton.
- After that, the next stop of this tour comes. The next visit will be to the restaurant. There, you can enjoy a delicious lunch.
- Then, you continue the individual trip in the Tuna El Gabel area. You can see the tomb of Petosiris, Ibis catacombs, and Isadora’s burial. This tomb goes back to the 2nd century AD and belongs to Isadora, renowned for her beauty in Hermopolis. It was the cultural centre where pilgrims gave homage to God Thoth.
- Overnight in El Minya
- We will show Beni Hassan’s tombs the following day. It is the site of almost 40 burials from the 11th and 12th dynasties. These tombs are the Tomb of Baqet III, governor and soldier of the Oryx Nome; the second one for his son – Khety; the third one of Amenemhat; and the fourth for Khunumhotep, the successor of King Amenemhat.
- Have lunch at a local restaurant.
- Then, proceed to Tel El Amarna, where you can see the northern tombs, among which are the Ahmose and Huya tombs.
- Finally, our bus leaves for Cairo after such a program in the beautiful city of El Minya.
- This Private Trip to El Minya from Hurghada ends at approximately 20:00.
What Does the Price of an El Minya Individual Trip to Hurghada Include?
- Accommodation
- The price includes tickets for visiting temples in El-Minya.
- Lunch.
- Drinks.
- Private guide.
- Also, the price includes a private vehicle to El-Minya and back to the hotel in Hurghada.
What does the El Minya Individual Hurghada Program not include?
- The additional excursion programs are not included in the schedule mentioned above.
Items to take with you for the tour
- Breakfast box.
- Also, bring suitable clothes for the season.
Booking Days of El Minya Private Two-Day Trip Hurghada
- Daily from 04:00 – 20:00 the next day.
Tuna el-Gebel – the largest cemetery of Graeco-Roman Egypt
Tuna el-Gebel is a captivating site situated approximately 270 km south of Cairo. The area is home to temples, houses, and tombs, which date back to the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, spanning from 300 BC to 300 AD. Archaeologists have been exploring the site for over 100 years, hoping to uncover its many secrets hidden in the desert sands.
In the southern part of the site lies a vast cemetery, where the first tombs were built around 300 BC. The early Roman period saw the construction of the first mud brick tombs, which were named “house tombs” due to their material and design.
This new building technique led to an increase in the urbanization of the cemetery, resulting in an increasing number of people being buried in the area. Over time, the necropolis transformed into a city-like structure, with the famous tomb of Petosiris at its core.
History of excavations and exploration of Tuna el-Gebel
Many museums worldwide display funerary masks without clear origins, which have been found at Tuna el-Gebel in the 1800s. In the early 1900s, the site was officially excavated by Gombert, who led the first season of exploration in 1902/03 on behalf of the Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale (IFAO).
W. Honroth followed in 1913 with a survey of the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft (DOG). In only ten days of exploratory excavation, he discovered different types of tombs constructed during the Roman period. He also found several tomb houses with painted decorations on up to four floors. In 1919, the tomb of Petosiris was found, excavated, and reconstructed within two years.
From 1931 to 1952, Sami Gabra, a professor at Cairo University, conducted excavations at Tuna el-Gebel. He began by focusing his investigations on the cemetery south of the tomb of Petosiris, and in the 1940s, he started exploring the underground galleries full of animal burials.
Alexander Badawy carried out further excavations since 1949, focusing on the temple of Thoth with a saqiya in its second court and the southeastern cemetery area.
They discovered the now-destroyed ‘Graffiti Chapel’, among other things. In the 1970s, two German teams started to work at Tuna el-Gebel. Dieter Kessler from Munich University explored the northern sector, concentrating on the underground galleries and their above-ground structures. Also, the Grimm, Krause, and Sabottka teams from Trier University surveyed the southern sector with the cemetery around the tomb of Petosiris. The results of this project remained unpublished.
Tombs of Tuna el-Gebel
The site of Tuna el-Gebel has a rich history, with the first buildings dedicated to the god Thoth dating back to around 300 BC. These included a temple and an underground gallery, particularly active during the Ptolemaic period. The area’s first tombs were made of local shell limestone and had a temple-like structure. Excavator Sami Gabra named them ‘temple tombs,’ the most famous of which is Petosiris’ tomb.
Recent geomagnetic surveys by the Institute of Geophysics of Kiel University have provided new information about the area. These surveys have shown that only 10% of the area has been excavated, with the unexplored necropolis area measuring approximately 20 hectares. This makes it one of the largest Graeco-Roman necropoleis in Egypt.
Not only is the area’s horizontal expansion attractive, but the cemetery’s vertical development is also notable. A change from stone to mud-brick for later buildings marked the ‘material turn’ in Tuna el-Gebel. The construction of multi-level ‘house-tombs’ was a more affordable option than stone monuments, allowing them to be built consecutively.
As a result of the new building technique, more and more people were buried in the cemetery. The use of different building materials not only had religious significance but also social implications. The architecture changed considerably, and there was a development from Egyptian themes to Roman iconography. Greek mythological scenes and imitations of precious stones dominated the decoration of the tombs during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.
Overall, these findings offer valuable insights into Tuna el-Gebel’s history and development, shedding light on the changes that took place over time.
Tell El Amarna
Amarna, also known as Tell El Amarna, was constructed by Akhenaton and his wife, Queen Nefertiti, during the Amarna Period. The city was founded as the centre of a revolutionary religion worshipping the god Aten.
Akhenaton sought to replace the polytheistic religion of Amen with monotheism and thus moved away from Thebes, where the priests of Amen held power, to establish the city of Akhetaton, which means “the horizon of Aten” in ancient Egyptian.
Today, only a few remnants remain of this once-great city, which covered a surface area of around 15 kilometres and contained temples, palaces, and governmental establishments. The Great Temple of Aten, surrounded by a cemetery, was also in Amarna.
Unlike most temples in ancient Egypt, the temples at Amarna were roofless to allow the sun’s rays to enter the complex, as they were constructed for the cult of the sun god, Aten.
Tombs of Tell El Amarna
The tombs in Akhetaton are essential monuments. There are 25 tombs, six located north for high officials and 19 in the south.
Ay’s Tomb
Aye served as a vizier during King Akhenaton’s reign and was a favoured royal official. His tomb in Tell El Amarna is well-preserved and adorned with fascinating paintings. The scenes depict Aye and his wife receiving a ceremonial golden collar from the king and Queen Nefertiti.
Huya’s Tomb
Huya served as steward to Queen Tiyi, mother of Akhenaton. The tomb features scenes of the royal family engaging in activities with the tomb’s owner.
Tomb of Mery-Re I
One of the best-decorated tombs in Tell El Amarna belonged to a high-ranking priest of the god Aten. Its colouration has remained stunning over the past 3500 years.
Beni Hasan
The Beni Hasan cemetery is in a highly fertile region of Egypt and boasts some of the Middle Kingdom’s most impressive tombs. These well-preserved tombs serve as a testament to the region’s economic prosperity.
The cemetery has two distinct areas: the upper and lower cemeteries. The lower cemetery contains approximately 800, most of which are shaft tombs. While it primarily houses tombs of various officials from the First Intermediate Period to the Middle Kingdom, late Old Kingdom tombs have also been unearthed.
The upper cemetery, on the other hand, includes 39 rock-cut tombs, all of which were expertly cut horizontally into the rock face of the cliffs. The walls of 12 of these tombs are adorned with beautifully painted scenes depicting everyday life activities such as agriculture, crafts, hunting, games, war, and the arrival of foreigners on Egyptian lands.
The upper cemetery tombs are a testament to the ancient Egyptians’ architectural skills. And they were carved into the rock with great precision using simple tools like chisels with bronze blades.
The tombs were the final resting place for the senior officials of the Oryx nome, the 16th Upper Egyptian province. These tombs date back to the 11th and 12th Dynasties of the Middle Kingdom. The repetition of names like Baqet, Khety, and Khnumhotep suggests that many tomb owners were related.
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