Along the face of the cliff here are the rock-cut tombs of the great nobles of the Early Middle Kingdom, and lower down are some graves of their retainers. These tombs had been re-used at the time of the Priest Kings, and were afterwards again violated. Then at a later period they were used for interments of Saite date, and, lastly, they served as dwelling-places for the Copts.
Out of the fifteen locations investigated by us only one (No. 5) gave any reward, and here we found undisturbed burials of a poorish class of people belonging to late Saite times.
