Sementawy Horemheb wrote, of one of Horemheb's epithets:

"And 'Overseer of works in the hill of gritstone.' etc."

The thrust of this title is that Horemheb was in charge of the king's construction and statuary works which were made of sandstone.

As Dieter Arnold notes in his publication on Egyptian architecture, sandstone, which is referred to "high sand" in Egyptian, took over from limestone as a major contruction material by the mid 18th Dynasty, and was used in all Theban temples and every temple on Nubia. The major sandstone quarries stretched from Esna to Nubia (particularly Gebel el-Sisila)(Arnold 2003: 208). So, I think the epithet reference is to Horemheb overseeing the quarrying of the building material, and not to a specific location.

Such "construction overseer" titles, mainly administrative and highly ceremonial, are common with noble officials during the New Kingdom. However, any title as head of royal construction works hearkens back to a time during the Old Kingdom where the first overseer of royal construction, Imhotep, held the highest confidence of the king. So, by use of a construction overseer epithet, Horemheb is indicating he is a confidante to the king, and thereby holds personal political power.

You will note that of his "public works" titles, the "High Sand" title is secondary to the title "Overseer of all works of the King in every place." Egyptian epithetical titles tend to be hierarchal, so the assumption is that Horemheb held the "overseer of the 'High Sand'" title first, but then was later promoted to "Overseer of all works of the King in every place."

As his titles goes, you can basically read Horemheb's career in this string of high titles of increasing political power via promotion, mainly as a testament of the rising confidence of the king in his abilities (You may also note that most of these titles are self-attributed, as we have no independent 'third party' inscriptions which attest to Horemheb being given these title by decree of Tutankhamun*).

Further, I know of no epithet for the royal necropolis at Thebes (The Valley of the Kings), which equates to the title "Hill of gritstone," nor did any of my colleagues.

Reference:

Arnold, D. 2003. The Encyclopedia of Ancient Egyptian Architecture. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

* While this is not to say that Tutankhamun didn't convey the titles, the present thinking is that Horemheb and Ay, during the reign of Tutankhamun, acted as 'silent regents' advising the king as to where officials should be named, what acts should be decreed, etc., sort of the way Richelieu advised the King of France...;) As such, Tutankhamun likely conveyed titles only as he was told to do.)

I hope this assisted.

Katherine Griffis-Greenberg