Meir — restricted-access necropolis of the Cusae nomarchs

What you are looking at

The Meir necropolis is the burial ground of the nomarchs of the fourteenth Upper Egyptian nome — the nome of Cusae — cut into the limestone cliffs above the western desert wadi known as Wadi el-Meir, roughly fifty kilometres north-west of Asyut city. The site is sometimes confused with the village of Meir on the cultivation; the tombs are not in the village but in the cliff above it, reached by a track running west from the village. There are approximately twenty-eight known rock-cut tombs at Meir, of which six were decorated and are sometimes accessible. In 2026 three tombs are open with prior permit: the tomb of Pepyankh the Black (Old Kingdom, Sixth Dynasty, designated A2), the tomb of Senbi I (Middle Kingdom, early Twelfth Dynasty, designated B1), and the tomb of Ukhhotep III (Middle Kingdom, mid Twelfth Dynasty, designated C1).

The painted reliefs at Meir, especially in the Middle Kingdom tombs of the Senbi-Ukhhotep family, are among the finest surviving examples of Middle Kingdom provincial art. The agricultural scenes — particularly the famous emaciated herdsmen of Ukhhotep III and the procession of estate personifications in Senbi I — are reproduced in every survey of the period. The site is in a particularly remote setting (the modern road runs out a kilometre below the cliff and the last stretch is on foot up a sandy slope) and the visit has a different quality to it than the better-attended sites further south.

The access restriction is operational rather than political. The site has limited inspector cover; the SCA Asyut inspectorate runs visits on a permit basis with at least one inspector accompanying each visitor party, and the office can only handle a small number of permits per week. The practical effect is that visitors are spread thinly across the site and the tombs themselves are quiet, which is a part of the attraction.

1. Write to the SCA Asyut inspectorate at least ten working days before the requested visit date. The contact at the Asyut directorate, as of February 2026, is Mr. Khaled Abdelsalam (head of inspectorate); the email and phone are in the contact sheet supplied to Library and Field subscribers.
2. Include in the request: the names and passport numbers of all visitors, the proposed date, a stated purpose (study visit, professional research, journalism, general cultural visit), and your contact in Asyut. A locally-based contact is not legally required but speeds the response.
3. Wait for the inspectorate reply. The standard reply window is five to seven working days. The reply confirms the date and specifies which tombs will be opened on that day; not all three are necessarily opened on every visit.
4. Arrange transport to the village of Meir. From Asyut, road taxi approximately seventy minutes one way. The road is paved to the village; the last kilometre to the tombs is on a dirt track and the standard taxi will go as far as the foot of the slope.
5. On the day, arrive at the tomb area at the time agreed (usually 09:30) and meet the SCA inspector. The inspector unlocks the tombs in the order specified and accompanies the visit throughout. Allow three hours on site for the three open tombs.

Subscribers at Library and Field tiers receive the full inspectorate contact sheet (including the current email, phone and office hours) on first joining. Non-subscribers can request a single-use referral by writing to the desk; we will pass the request to the inspectorate on your behalf with a covering note, but the formal application still goes from you.

Reading list

• Blackman, A.M. The Rock Tombs of Meir. Six volumes, London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1914–1953. The foundational publication.
• El-Sharkawy, A. (ed.). Meir Tomb Inscriptions — A Bilingual Edition. Verdi Heritage Studies subscriber monograph, 2023.
• Kanawati, N. The tomb of Pepyankh the Black at Meir. Australian Centre for Egyptology, 2021. Modern re-publication with new photography.