Beni Hassan’s scene of foreigners led by the ‘ruler of a foreign land’ Ibsha is one of the most recognisable in the study of Egyptian-Levantine relations. It is, however, a late scene in a string of data testifying to contacts between Levantines and the officials of Egypt’s Oryx nome. The paper discusses the artistic evidence from the early Middle Kingdom tombs at Beni Hassan, exploring representations of Asiatics and commenting on the ‘clash of cultures’ or the impact of continuous cross-cultural activity at the site.