Incense wasn’t decoration in ancient Egyptian ritual — it was infrastructure. It purified sacred spaces, was believed to ward off hostile forces, and carried prayers upward as visible smoke. The man responsible for supplying it to the great temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak is buried in a small, quietly powerful tomb in Dra Abu el-Naga, on Luxor’s West Bank.
Shuroy lived during the Ramesside Period (20th Dynasty) and held the title “Head of Brazier-Bearers of Amun” — chief incense bearer for one of Egypt’s most important cults. TT13 is a T-shaped tomb consisting of a vestibule and a decorated hall, incomplete and damaged in places but stabilized by a 2002 restoration that revived its surviving color.
A Funerary Procession With Real Emotion
TT13’s standout scene shows Shuroy’s mummy carried by male bearers while mourners wail at his feet — a rawness of expression that’s genuinely rare in Egyptian funerary art, which usually favors composed, idealized grief over visible anguish.
Ritual Scenes
- Banquet and offerings: Shuroy and his family receive food, drink, and incense from priests and attendants — sustenance meant to last into eternity.
- Opening of the Mouth: A priest performs the ceremony on Shuroy’s mummy, symbolically restoring his senses for the afterlife. For the ritual’s wider context, see Funerals in Ancient Egypt.
- Before Osiris: Shuroy stands before the god of the dead, with the Four Sons of Horus as protective figures nearby.
The paintings themselves are fresco on a bluish-white ground, done in ochres and the muted, harmonized palette typical of Ramesside work — faded in places now, but still warm.
Incense as Belief, Not Just Job Title
The repeated incense imagery throughout the tomb does double duty: it’s a record of Shuroy’s actual profession, and a statement of belief in incense’s three core functions — purification, protection, and carrying prayer to the gods. Filling his own tomb with the imagery of his life’s work was Shuroy’s way of making sure that role, and his place in it, continued after death.
Visiting the Tomb of Shuroy
- Location: Dra Abu el-Naga, just south of the Tomb of Roy (TT255) — the two are easily combined into one stop.
- Ticket: TT13 is sold within the Dra Abu el-Naga cluster ticket system alongside Roy (TT255) and nearby tombs. For the current grouping and pricing, see our Dra Abu el-Naga guide and entrance fees page.
- Time needed: 15 minutes; TT13 is a small, single-hall tomb.
- Photography: Usually requires a separate camera ticket; check on arrival.
- Accessibility: Rock-cut hillside tomb; not wheelchair accessible.
- Best time: Early morning, for light and cooler temperatures.
Pair TT13 with the Tomb of Roy (TT255) nearby, and with Ramose (TT55) or Rekhmire (TT100) if you’re spending a full day on the West Bank — together they trace very different rungs of the same New Kingdom bureaucracy, from vizier to temple priest.