Theban Tomb TT71 is located in the Theban Necropolis

Theban Necropolis

The Theban Necropolis is an area of the west bank of the Nile, opposite Thebes in Egypt. It was used for ritual burials for much of Pharaonic times, especially in the New Kingdom of Egypt.-Mortuary Temples:* Deir el-Bahri** Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut...

, on the west bank of the Nile

Nile

The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...

, opposite to Luxor

Luxor

Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt and the capital of Luxor Governorate. The population numbers 487,896 , with an area of approximately . As the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of Thebes, Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open air museum", as the ruins of the temple...

. It was the tomb chapel of Senenmut

Senenmut

Senenmut was an 18th dynasty ancient Egyptian architect and government official. His name translates literally as "mother's brother."- Family :...

, who was the steward and architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 of Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut also Hatchepsut; meaning Foremost of Noble Ladies;1508–1458 BC) was the fifth pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty of Ancient Egypt...

.
The chapel is located in the necropolis area around Sheikh Abd el-Qurna

Sheikh Abd el-Qurna

The necropolis of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna is located on the West Bank at Thebes, Egypt.Named after the doomed tomb of the local saint. This is the most frequently visited cemetery on the Theban west bank, with the largest concentration of private tombs....

. Previously (for about 100 years) the tomb was accessible and for most of this time the target of numerous investigations and intrusions, although early on already heavily destroyed. The tomb was visited already early. In the first half of the Nineteenth Century John Gardner Wilkinson

John Gardner Wilkinson

Sir John Gardner Wilkinson was an English traveller, writer and pioneer Egyptologist of the 19th century. He is often referred to as "the Father of British Egyptology".-Childhood and education:...

, Robert Hay

Robert Hay (Egyptologist)

Robert Hay was a Scottish traveller, antiquarian, and early Egyptologist. He was born in Duns Castle, Berwickshire. During his service in the Royal Navy he visited Alexandria, Egypt, in 1818....

 and J. Wild copied scenes, although the decoration was already badly destroyed. Richard Lepsius (1842-45) took the false door to Berlin and copied some inscribed bricks. Only in 1906 Kurt Sethe

Kurt Heinrich Sethe

Kurt Heinrich Sethe was a noted German Egyptologist and philologist from Berlin. He was a student of Adolf Erman...

 copied all inscriptions. In 1930-31 Herbert Winlock cleared the whole tomb. Winlock found the fragments of a smashed sarcophagus.

Today the tomb chapel's decoration is almost totally gone. With its dimensions it is one of the biggest Theban chapels of the 18th Dynasty. The facade is about 30 meter wide. In the middle there is the entrance and on either side there are four niches with windows. The inner of the chapel has an (upside-down) T-shaped plan. The transverse hall is about 26 m long and supported by eight columns. At the back there are several small niches. In the hall appears the oldest depictions of Minoans

Minoan civilization

The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete and flourished from approximately the 27th century BC to the 15th century BC. It was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of the British archaeologist Arthur Evans...

 in Egypt so far known. There are also remains of soldiers under a Hathor frieze and a biographical inscription. After the transverse hall follows a long passage with a niche at the end. Only few remains of the decoration survived, such as an offering list and a banquet scene, where Senenmut is once shown with his mother and once with his father. A special feature only known from this tomb are several rock cut stelae providing the name and titles of Senenmut.

Above the chapel, cut into the rocks, there is a block statue

Block statue (Egyptian)

The block statue is a type of memorial statue that first emerged in the Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. The block statue grew in popularity in the New Kingdom and the Third Intermediate Period, and by the Late Period, this type of statue was the most common. These statues were used in temples...

 of Senenmut.

It has always been a matter of confusion that Senenmut had two tombs. However, in the 18th Dynasty several high officials had one decorated tomb chapel and a second tomb with an underground burial chamber often not even close to the chapel. In some cases it can be assumed that they even had an undecorated burial chamber in the Valley of the Kings, while a decorated chapel closer to the fertile land. The burial chamber of Senenmut was found at Deir el-Bahri

Deir el-Bahri

Deir el-Bahari or Deir el-Bahri is a complex of mortuary temples and tombs located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the city of Luxor, Egypt....

 TT353 and is sometimes called Senemut's 'secret tomb', as it has no chapel, which was in fact TT71. TT71 functioned most likely also as chapel for Senemut's parents, who were buried closeby and are depicted in the chapel.