The city’s eminent position in the New Kingdom affected the nature of itsdesert-edge necropolis. The latter’s prominence is underlined by the fact thatsome of the kingdom’s most influential priestly, administrative, military, andcourtofficialschosetoconstructtheirtombs11inthisculturallandscapewhich,atthetime,wasalreadyancient.Italsousedtobeaverylivelyplace,onewhereancient people worked, lived, and moved through.12 In the past, it was not justa place for the dead. Rather, or perhaps first and foremost, it was a place fre-quented and shaped by the living.13 The living are at the heart of this study,asking how they, as individuals and in groups, shaped, perceived, and experi-enced this cultural landscape through time, and how,viceversa, their actionswere shaped by the (ever changing) landscape.