That is an incredible sight to see in person! You are almost certainly thinking of the tombs at Beni Hasan, a Middle Kingdom necropolis located on the eastern bank of the Nile (about 20 km south of modern-day Minya).

While a few tombs there feature sports, the "manual" you saw is most likely in the Tomb of Baqet III (also known as Tomb 15) or the Tomb of Khety (Tomb 17), who was Baqet's son.

Why it looks like a manual

These tombs are world-famous for their "action-sequence" style of art. Unlike the static poses found in many other Egyptian tombs, these walls look like a modern-day storyboard or a frame-by-frame animation:

• The Scale: The east wall of Baqet III’s tomb alone features over 200 pairs of wrestlers (about 400 figures total).
• The Detail: The scenes depict nearly every conceivable wrestling move: leg trips, waist locks, shoulder throws, and ground grappling.
• The Contrast: To make the moves easier to follow, the artist painted one wrestler in a darker shade of reddish-brown and the other in a lighter shade, so you can see exactly whose limb is where—just like a modern instructional diagram.

Historical Context

• Age: These paintings date back to the 11th Dynasty (roughly 2000 BCE), making them over 4,000 years old.
• Purpose: Historians believe these scenes weren't just for decoration; they likely served as a record of military training. Both Baqet III and Khety were "Nomarchs" (regional governors) during a time of civil unrest, and training a skilled infantry was vital to their power.

Besides wrestling, those same walls often show other "physical education" scenes, like soldiers practicing archery, people juggling, and even a siege of a fortress.

Would you like me to find more details on how to get back there, or perhaps help you identify any other tombs you visited on that trip?