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33-432: Amenemhat III was the last powerful ruler of the 12th Dynasty , and the pyramid he built at Hawara is believed to post-date the so-called "Black Pyramid" built by the same ruler at Dahshur . This is believed to have been Amenemhet's final resting place. At Hawara there was also the intact (pyramid) tomb of Neferuptah , daughter of Amenemhet III. This tomb was found about 2 km south of the king's pyramid. In common with

66-479: A destructive civil war. It writes that the sage, Neferti, prophesied that a great king named Ameny (Amenemhat I) would lead a united Egypt out of this tumultuous period. The work also mentions Amenemhat I's mother being from the Elephantine Egyptian nome Ta-Seti . Many scholars in recent years have argued that Amenemhat I's mother was of Nubian origin. Other known works attributed to

99-518: A pointed roof. Then an enormous arch of brick 3 feet thick was built over the pointed roof to support the core of the pyramid. The entrance to the pyramid is today flooded to a depth of 6 metres as a result of the waters from the Abdul Wahbi canal (an offshoot of the Bahr Yussef canal), which flows around two sides of the site and passes within 30m of the pyramid. The first excavations at

132-495: Is The Story of Sinuhe , of which papyrus copies dating as late as the New Kingdom have been recovered. Some of the existing literature pertaining to the 12th Dynasty are propagandistic in nature. The Prophecy of Neferti establishes a revisionist account of history that legitimizes Amenemhat I’s rule. Written during the reign of Amenemhat I, described a sage’s prophecy given to the 4th Dynasty King Snefru that predicted

165-518: Is a series of rulers reigning from 1991–1802 BC (190 years), at what is often considered to be the apex of the Middle Kingdom (Dynasties XI–XIV). The dynasty periodically expanded its territory from the Nile delta and valley South beyond the second cataract and East into Canaan . The Twelfth Dynasty was marked by relative stability and development. It has a notably well recorded history for

198-565: Is no historicity to the assertion of Diodorus Siculus that this was the model for the labyrinth of Crete that Greeks imagined housed the Minotaur .) The demolition of the "labyrinth" may date in part to the reign of Ptolemy II , under whom the Pharaonic city of Shedyt (Greek Crocodilopolis , the modern Medinet el-Fayum) was renamed to honour his sister-wife Arsinoë ; a massive Ptolemaic building program at Arsinoë has been suggested as

231-608: The Levant . Senusret III's military career contributed to his prestige during the New Kingdom, as he was regarded as a warrior king and even revered as a god in Nubia. One of Senusret III’s significant internal developments was the centralization of administrative power in the kingdom, which replaced the nome system with three large administrative districts that encompassed all of Egypt. Senusret's successor Amenemhat III reaffirmed his predecessor's foreign policy. However, after Amenemhat,

264-406: The Middle Kingdom pyramids constructed after Amenemhat II , it was built of mudbrick round a core of limestone passages and burial chambers, and faced with limestone. Most of the facing stone was later pillaged for use in other buildings— a fate common to almost all of Egypt's pyramids— and today the pyramid is little more than an eroded, vaguely pyramidal mountain of mud brick, and of

297-605: The 11th and 12th dynasties to be part of the Middle Kingdom. Known rulers of the Twelfth Dynasty are as follows: This dynasty was founded by Amenemhat I , who may have been vizier to the last king of Dynasty XI , Mentuhotep IV . His armies campaigned south as far as the Second Cataract of the Nile and into southern Canaan . As a part of his militaristic expansion of Egypt, Amenemhat I ordered

330-670: The 12th Dynasty include: Bahr Yussef The Bahr Yussef ( Arabic : بحر يوسف ; "the waterway of Joseph" ) is a canal which connects the Nile River with Faiyum Oasis in Egypt . In ancient times it was called Tomis ( Ancient Greek : Τωμις ) by the Greeks, which was derived from its Egyptian name Tm.t ("ending canal"). That name was still in use after the Arab conquest , translated into Arabic as al-Manhi ( Arabic : المنهى ). It

363-623: The Fayyum later became the basis for the Ptolemaic and Roman efforts that turned the region into the bread basket of the Mediterranean. Finding Nubia had grown restive under the previous rulers, Senusret sent punitive expeditions into that land. As a part of his effort to subdue Nubia, he ordered the construction of several new fortresses as well as the expansion of existing ones along the border with Nubia. He also sent an expedition into

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396-516: The Mediterranean, and Africa. He built his mortuary complex near Memphis at Dahshur. Senusret II also reigned during a time of peace. He was the first king to develop the Fayyum Basin for agricultural production. This development was complex, requiring the digging of several canals and the draining of a lake in order to maximize the Fayyum’s agricultural output. The Middle Kingdom development of

429-651: The Nile. In addition to pursuing militaristic expansion, Senusret I was also responsible for internal growth within Egypt. As king, he initiated a considerable amount of building projects across Egypt, including pyramids in Lisht , a temple at Karnak and oversaw the renovation of the kingdoms major temples. Unlike his predecessors, Amenemhat II was king during a time of peace. Under his reign, trade boomed with other states in Asia,

462-641: The Seizer of the Two Lands"), more simply called, Itjtawy . The location of Itjtawy has not been discovered yet, but it is thought to be near the Fayyum , probably near the royal graveyards at el-Lisht . The order of its rulers of the Twelfth Dynasty is well known from several sources: two lists recorded at temples in Abydos and one at Saqqara , as well as lists derived from Manetho's work. A recorded date during

495-407: The burial chamber. This, however, was a blind and merely filled a wide but shallow alcove. Two blind shafts in the floor, carefully filled with cut stone blocks, further wasted the robbers' time, for the real entrance to the burial chamber was even more carefully concealed and lay between the blind shafts and opposite the alcove. Despite these elaborate protective measures, Petrie found that none of

528-595: The construction of multiple military forts in Nubia. He also reestablished diplomatic relations with the Canaanite state of Byblos and Hellenic rulers in the Aegean Sea . He was the father of Senusret I. For the first ten years of his reign, Senusret I ruled as a coregent alongside his father, Amenemhat I. He continued his fathers campaigns into Nubia, expanding Egyptian control to the Third Cataract of

561-498: The depression that exists today and the modern Faiyum Oasis . During the medieval period, the canal was still a major communication axis to connect Fayyum to Cairo . The Bahr Yussef still exists today, feeding water northwards into the Faiyum Oasis, parallel with the Nile. 29°14′29″N 30°55′00″E  /  29.241473°N 30.916729°E  / 29.241473; 30.916729 This geography of Egypt article

594-535: The discoveries made by Petrie were papyrus manuscripts, including a great papyrus scroll which contains parts of books 1 and 2 of the Iliad (the "Hawara Homer" of the Bodleian Library , Oxford). 29°16′27″N 30°53′56″E  /  29.27417°N 30.89889°E  / 29.27417; 30.89889 Twelfth dynasty of Egypt The Twelfth Dynasty of ancient Egypt ( Dynasty XII )

627-422: The energies of this dynasty were largely spent, and the growing troubles of government were left to the dynasty's last ruler, Sobekneferu , to resolve. Amenemhat was remembered for the mortuary temple at Hawara that he built. Amenemhat IV succeeded his father, Amenemhat III, and ruled for approximately nine years. At the time of his death, Amenemhat IV had no apparent heir, leading to Sobekneferu’s ascension to

660-512: The kingdoms administration and agricultural developments in the Fayyum. The Twelfth Dynasty was also responsible for significant expansion of Egyptian borders, with campaigns pushing into Nubia and the Levant. The Twelfth Dynasty is often considered the apex of Egypt's Middle Kingdom. The Middle Kingdom spans the Eleventh , Thirteenth , and Fourteenth dynasties, but some scholars only consider

693-424: The next in line to rule, died at an early age. Sobekneferu was the last king of the twelfth dynasty. There is no record of her having an heir. She also had a relatively short nearly four year reign and the next dynasty began with a shift in succession, possibly to unrelated heirs of Amenemhat IV. Several famous works of Egyptian literature originated from the 12th Dynasty. Perhaps the best known work from this period

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726-459: The once magnificent mortuary temple precinct formerly enclosed by a wall there is little left beyond the foundation bed of compacted sand and chips and shards of limestone. The huge mortuary temple that originally stood adjacent to this pyramid is believed to have formed the basis of the complex of buildings with galleries and courtyards called the " Labyrinth " by Herodotus ; this building was also mentioned by Strabo and Diodorus Siculus . (There

759-619: The period. Its first pharaoh was Amenemhat I and its final was Sobekneferu . The chronology of the Twelfth Dynasty is the most stable of any period before the New Kingdom . The Turin Royal Canon gives 213 years (1991–1778 BC). Manetho stated that it was based in Thebes , but from contemporary records it is clear that the first king of this dynasty, Amenemhat I , moved its capital to a new city named "Amenemhat-itj-tawy" ("Amenemhat

792-424: The pyramid guardians). In fact there was a second 20-ton trapdoor in the roof of the empty passage, giving onto a second empty passage, also at a right angle to the first. This too had a 20-ton trapdoor giving onto a passage at a right angle to its predecessor (thus the interior of the pyramid was circled by these passages). However this passage ended in a large area of mud and stone blocking that presumably concealed

825-525: The reign of Senusret III can be correlated to the Sothic cycle , consequently, many events during this dynasty frequently can be assigned to a specific year. However, scholars now have expressed skepticism in the usefulness of the referred date, due to the fact that location affects observation of the Sothic cycle. Egypt underwent various developments under the Twelfth Dynasty, including the reorganization of

858-478: The site were made by Karl Lepsius , in 1843. William Flinders Petrie excavated at Hawara, in 1888, finding papyri of the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, and, north of the pyramid, a vast necropolis where he found 146 portraits on coffins dating to the Roman period, famous as being among the very few surviving examples of painted portraits from classical antiquity , the "Fayum" mummy portraits from Roman Egypt . Among

891-416: The throne. Sobekneferu , a daughter of Amenemhat III, was the first known woman to become king of Egypt. She was left with the unresolved governmental issues that are noted as arising during her father's reign when she succeeded Amenemhat IV, thought to be her brother, half brother, or step brother. Upon his death, she became the heir to the throne because her older sister, Neferuptah , who would have been

924-409: The trapdoors had been slid into place and the wooden doors were open. Whether this indicated negligence on the part of the burial party, an intention to return and place further burials in the pyramid (when found there were two sarcophagi in the quartzite monolith described below and room for at least two more), or a deliberate action to facilitate robbery of the tomb, we cannot know. The burial chamber

957-483: The ultimate destination of Middle Kingdom limestone columns and blocks removed from Hawara, and now lost. Pharaoh Sobekneferu of the Twelfth Dynasty also built at the complex. Her name meant "most beautiful of Sobek ", the sacred crocodile. From the pyramid entrance a sloping passageway with steps runs down to a small room and a further short horizontal passage. In the roof of this horizontal passage there

990-429: Was a concealed sliding trapdoor weighing 20 tons. If this was found and opened a robber would find himself confronted by an empty passage at a right angle to the passage below, closed by wooden doors, or by a passage parallel to the passage below, carefully filled with mud and stone blocking. He would assume that the blocking concealed the entrance and waste time removing it (thereby increasing the likelihood of detection by

1023-511: Was also known as "the Great canal" ( Ancient Greek : διῶρυξ Μεγάλη ) or "the canal of Moeris". The modern Arabic name refers to the prophet Yusuf , the Quranic counterpart of the biblical Joseph . In prehistoric times, the canal was a natural offshoot of the Nile which created a lake to the west during high floods. Beginning with the Twelfth Dynasty , the waterway was enlarged and the Fayyum

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1056-599: Was developed to enlarge Lake Moeris (now Birket Qarun). The canal was built into the natural incline of the valley, creating a channel 15 km long and 5 m deep that sloped into the Fayyum depression. The canal was controlled by the Ha-Uar Dam , which was actually two dams that regulated the flow into the lake and out of the Nile. As the surrounding area changed at about 230 BC, the Bahr Yussef eventually became neglected, leaving most of Lake Moeris to dry up, creating

1089-433: Was made out of a single quartzite monolith which was lowered into a larger chamber lined with limestone . This monolithic slab weighed an estimated 110 tons according to Petrie. A course of brick was placed on the chamber to raise the ceiling then the chamber was covered with 3 quartzite slabs (estimated weight 45 tons each). Above the burial chamber were 2 relieving chambers. This was topped with 50 ton limestone slabs forming

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