Gebel al-Mawta is a necropolis from the 26th Dynasty. The tombs honeycomb a natural roughly cone-shaped hill on the edge of Shali. The tombs here are mainly undecorated, but some have tiny doorways with architectural features. It is absolutely vital to watch where you step because it would be easy to fall down a hole into a tomb entrance.
In the decorated tombs the damage to the paintwork is blamed variously on Roman settlers who are said to have disposed of tomb contents to use the chambers for storage, on the Siwan King Radwan at the time of the Arab inviasion (who is said to have raided mummies to poison enemy springs) or, finally, on tomb robbers. No photography is permitted in the tombs - my photograph of the ceiling from the tomb of Si-Amun below is the scan of a postcard.
The sky in the first picture looks a little ominous - and later in the day a few rain drops did fall.
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