Setau

Setau was the Viceroy of Kush in the second half of Ramesses II's reign. Contemporary records show that Setau served in this position from Year 38 until at least Year 63 of Ramesses II's reign. Setau was "a graduate of the royal school" and already enjoyed an impressive record of royal service which is detailed in a long autobiographical inscription carved at Wadi es-Sebua. Eleven of his stela, now in the Cairo Museum, were found in the courtyard of this temple and make it possible to establish his career and understand the precise duties of a viceroy.

Setau was determined to set out his mark in Nubia and records that he: directed serfs in their thousands and ten-thousands, and Nubians in hundred-thousands, without limit. I brought all the dues of the land of Kush in double measure. I caused the people to come in submission. Then I was commissioned to build the temple of Ramesses II in the Domain of Amun [ie. Wadi es-Sebua]. This temple, called the 'House of Ptah' was a hemi-speos or a partially rock cut and partially exposed temple which was dedicated to Ptah, Ptah-Tatenen and Hathor and associated with the pharaoh himself. However, Setau's ambitious goals to leave his mark on the country of Nubia were handicapped by inferior raw materials and his untrained workforce. As Joyce Tyldesley notes: "the buildings which he (ie. Setau) supervised, although at first sight magnificent, were by no means well built while even his own great stela were full of spelling mistakes."

Setau also built or renovated at a temple at El-Kab.

Burial Setau's tomb (TT289) is located in the Dra' Abu el-Naga' area of the Theban Necropolis.

The tomb is large and decorated with scenes ranging from a funeral procession, to scenes from the Book of the Dead, to scenes of Setau – sometimes with his wife Nofretmut – before deities. Finds include the aforementioned fragments of the granite sarcophagus of Setau, and a coffin lid of Setau's wife with figures of Thoth and Imset. Setau reused the pyramid belonging to tomb 288, which belonged to Bekenkhons, whose tomb is also dated to the Ramesside period.