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Discovery of the Tomb: The initial discovery of the Tomb of ‘Ip at El-Saff was done by a member of Cairo Museum’s Department of Antiquities, Labib Habachi, during the 1930s. However, Habachi’s work would not be published until 1996, after the detailed work was trusted to American Egyptologist Henry George Fischer, who published Habachi’s findings for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Orientation of the Tomb: The Tomb of ‘Ip is located on the eastern bank of the Nile in Lower Egypt. It is roughly 17 miles north of Atfih and is built into a desert cliff face. Given this location and other factors, such as being faced in a different direction than most tombs in the area, the tomb itself is designed differently from most of the tombs of the early middle kingdom.

Date of the Tomb: Based on the style of art and the writing in the tomb, it is believed to have been built in the early Middle Kingdom, no later than the 12th dynasty. However, based on the content of the writing itself, we can also see that the tomb owner was very likely a political leader in the first intermediate period. This is made clear by the many titles for the tomb owner included on the walls in the tomb. These titles, including “Keeper of the diadem”, “Overseer of the western desert”, and “Overseer of the Marshlands” are indicative of a Nomarch, from the first intermediate period

Content of the Tomb: The tomb is roughly 9x5 feet (300x150 cm) and, unlike most other temples from the time, this one seemed to have no real offering place or false door, at first. Given the odd layout of the tomb, it was possible that the offering place was, instead of in the center, most likely built behind a statue of the tomb owner in the northern corner of the tomb. There are two main rooms, a chapel and a smaller burial chamber. This second chamber is assumed to be the burial chamber based on the art on its walls depicting mainly funerary acts and being much more somber in its color choices compared to the white walls of the chapel. the walls inside the tomb depict very different scenes of daily life, involving the tomb owner and his wife. Such scenes include the tomb owner and his wife sitting together and receiving offerings, as well as the tomb owner out fishing on a personal skiff.