Joseph Bonomi the Younger into debt and was eventually happy to accept a modestly paid commission to accompany Robert Hay on an expedition, via Malta, to Egypt in 1824. This began a lifelong interest in Egyptology. From 1824 to 1826, he was a member of Hay's expedition where he sketched many antiquities. At Abu Simbel in 1825, Bonomi – responding to Hay's demands for great accuracy – devised a drawing frame (a viewfinder-type device equipped with a sight and a string or wire grid) to help them draw the temples' interior decorations. The expedition then moved on to Kalabsha, where Bonomi laboured to produce
Yuny (viceroy of Kush) of the Abu Simbel temples were cut. Yuny commemorated his work with a rock-cut scene showing himself standing before Ramesses II on the Abu Simbel cliff. After ten years under Ramesses II, Yuny retired from his post in Nubia. He was succeeded by Heqanakht. Yuny (viceroy of Kush) Yuni served as Head of the-stable-of-Seti-I, Charioteer of His Majesty, and Chief of the Medjay before becoming Viceroy during the reign of Seti I. He would use some of these titles simultaneously. On a stela from Abydos -now in the Cairo Museum (Jd'E 34620) - the inscription reads: "Made by the Superintendent