The Tomb of Nebamun

Nebamun lived in Egypt nearly 3500 years ago, around the same time as Tutankhamun. He was an official who worked for the king, and he built a wonderful tomb-chapel filled with colourful paintings of himself and his family and his servants in various scenes: throwing a splendid banquet, counting their herds of geese and cattle, making offerings to the gods, enjoying their garden, and hunting in the marshes – with their cat! These paintings are among the most famous objects to survive from ancient Egypt, and are filled with marvellous and lively detail that children will love to explore. The location of Nebamun’s tomb was lost after these paintings were removed in the nineteenth century, and Egyptian experts are still studying the clues to find it. The paintings have been extensively studied and conserved at the British Museum over the last few years, in readiness to be displayed in a new gallery in 2008. This book explores what the paintings mean and how the experts have painstakingly discovered the mysteries of the tomb and its possible location.