TT52

TT52
Burial site of Nakht
Famous picture of the Beautiful festival of the valley
TT52
Coordinates	25°43′54.65″N 32°36′35.84″E / 25.7318472°N 32.6099556°E / 25.7318472; 32.6099556Coordinates: 25°43′54.65″N 32°36′35.84″E / 25.7318472°N 32.6099556°E / 25.7318472; 32.6099556
Location	Sheikh Abd el-Qurna
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Nakht in hieroglyphs
Nakht and Lady Taui offering

The Theban Tomb TT52 is located in Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, part of the Theban Necropolis, on the west bank of the Nile, opposite to Luxor. It is the burial place of the Ancient Egyptian official, Nakht.

The tomb architecture and decoration conforms to the standard design of Theban tombs of the New Kingdom by using such scenes that are commonly found in contemporary tombs. Some of these decorations display differences from scenes found in Old Kingdom mastabas of Memphis, where one of the principal functions of the tomb was to ensure magical sustenance for the ka, whereas in the New Kingdom tombs, the primary function was to identify oneself on the tomb walls.

The tomb has the typical T-shaped architectural design that was common for non-royal Theban tombs of the New Kingdom; there was a broad hall, which followed from the entrance and court. This led into an inner chamber, the long hall, and the shrine, which was situated in a niche, containing the statue of the deceased. These chambers were designed to contain scenes for the service of the dead in their afterlife. Essentially, this architectural design is somewhat similar to that of the bipartite mastabas of the Old Kingdom, which contained two main chambers, the offering chapel and the burial chamber, as these New Kingdom tombs also contain two main chambers. However, in the latter tombs both of the chambers are created for different purposes to that of the chambers within the Old Kingdom mastabas. Within the mastaba, the offering chapel was dedicated to the sustenance of the deceased beyond death by magically providing food and water. Such scenes are generally not depicted as often in the New Kingdom tombs.

The stela on the south wall of the broad hall shows men making offerings to images of the deceased. Beneath this, Nut is shown before a pile of offerings. This scene, therefore, shows that the dead were not wholly reliant on their family for offerings but could rely on "a divine source as well". Similar scenes could also be found on the walls of Old Kingdom burials, depicting processions of people bringing offerings for the deceased. However, Malek wrote that offerings scenes are rarer in New Kingdom tombs than in the Old Kingdom.