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The Twelfth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt

Dated : 1991—1784

The chronology of the twelfth dynasty is the most fixed of any period ahead the New Kingdom. The Ramses Papyrus canon (1290 BC) in Turin passes about "213 years (1991–1778 BC)". Manetho express that it was established in Thebes, but from contemporary records it is clear that the first king gone its capital to a other city named "Amenemhat-itj-tawy" ("Amenemhat the Seizer of the Two Lands"), more just addressed Itjtawy. The location of Itjtaway has not been got, but is thought to be close the Faiyum, plausibly near the royal necropolises at el-Lisht. Egyptologists consider this dynasty to be the peak of the Middle Kingdom.

The order of its swayer is well noted from individual sources — two lists recorded at temples in Abydos and alone at Saqqara, as well as Manetho's work. A entered date during the dominate of Senusret III can be connected to the Sothic cycle, accordingly many cases through this dynasty can be ofttimes assigned to a specific year.

List of Twelfth Dynasty Kings:

The Pyramid of Sobekneferu

The ruins of Queen Sobekneferu's
Pyramid (North of Mazghuna)
Directly to the north of the advance pyramid, the second pyramid at Mazghuna is also of uncertain origin, but is sometimes assigned to Amenhotep IV's successor, perchance his sister (and perhaps wife), Queen Sobeknefru (Nefrusobek) who found for about three years in her individual right. Sobeknefru was the first decidedly old female pharaoh (although Queen Nitiqret may have ruled in Dynasty VI). The North Pyramid was designed to be larger than its neighbor and attributed to the queen solely on structural grounds. The super construction of the pyramid seems never to have been begun, but the project of the black chambers is more full than that of Amenemhat IV. The entrance to the substructure is to the east of the northern side of the base and has a coming stairway which turned several times through various chambers went with blocking plugs before giving the burial chamber. The burial chamber once more taken a huge quartzite forget with carved-out blanks for the coffin and canopic jars. Although the sarcophagus block was pressed, plastered and finished red, there was never any burial here. Neither was the rest of the pyramid complex good, although mudbrick walls of a causeway were found to approach the structure from the east. It was inquired in 1910 by Ernest MacKay.


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Sobekneferu (1787-1783)

Hieroglyphic name:
Hieroglyphic name of Sobekneferu




Montuhotep III name: Sobekneferu, Nefru-Sobek, Sebekkar and Neferusobek

Statue of Sobekneferu
Sobekneferu (Nefru-Sobek) (d. 1783  B.C) Last swayer of the Twelfth Dynasty, powerful as a queen pharaoh. She found Egypt from 1787 B.C. until her end. She was a daughter of Amenemhat III and the half sister of King Amenemhat IV. Her name thought the dish of Sobek. Sobekneferu  was  leaned in the Turin canon and in the Saqqara king list. She was  a coregent  with her father  and  married  to her brother, Amenemhat IV. When he went in 1787 B.C.E., she taken the throne, ruling from Itj-tawy, the dynastic great. Sobekneferu finished Amenemhat III's mortuary temple at Hawara and perchance  rested at times during the year at Shedet (Crocodilopolis) in the Faiyum.

Three stupid  statues of her were found at Tel El-daba, and a repository at the second cataract respected her reign. Cylinder seals with her serekh and  statuary fragmentise have likewise been found. Her torso is in the Louvre in Paris. Sobekneferu is believed to have established a pyramid at Mazghuna, near Dashur, but did not use it. She and Amenemhat IV were maybe buried somewhere nearby.

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Amenemhat IV and Moses

Moses was raised as Egyptian Royalty for the first fourty years of his life. After that, he fled to Midian and quelled there for fourty years. When he was eighty years old, he gave to Egypt to confront a several Pharaoh with the substance that God had given him. Amenemhat IV co-reigned with Amenemhat III for nine years and then dead melted. Sobeknefru, the sister or daughter of Amenemhat III, was childless and seems to have took Amenemhat IV (Moses). As he disappeared, Sobeknefru had to got the Queen (Pharaoh) when her brother or father, Amenemhat III died. She reigned for near 4 years and then she died. There was nobody to inherit the throne when she gone and so the 12th dynasty ended. Egypt became destabilized and a number of pharaohs followed in quick successiveness until Neferhotep of the 13th dynasty. Neferhotep was the Pharaoh when Moses established to Egypt at the age of eighty. Neferhotep and his army, with over 600 chariots, tracked the Israelites when they did not light form a seeing in the desert to worship their God. When they got to the Nuweiba, the Israelites were efficient to cross the Red Sea but when Pharaoh and his army established to follow, they all drowned. Neferhoteps brother had to take through the throne. He did not last long as he was easy pickings for the Hyksos without the Egyptian army and their chariots to serve him.


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Pyramid of Amenemhat IV

The remains of the pyramid
of Amenemhet IV at  Mazghuna
The South Pyramid at Mazghuna is often imputed to Amenemhat IV, the last king of Dynasty XII and the son of Amenemhat III, although no names have been observed in the complex. The cause for the ascription is based on stylistic grounds - the layout of the foundation and burial chamber like that of Amenemhat III's pyramid at Hawara in the Faiyum. Amenemhat IV finished his father's temples at Medinet Madi and likely also built the temple at Qasr el-Sagha, but his reign was light and there is no certainty about the location of his burial come out. Mazghuna South Pyramid was enquired in 1910 by British archaeologist, Ernest MacKay. Today, only the gone mudbrick burden of the pyramid remains, with no trace of casing, suggesting that the super structure was left unfinished. The pyramid's capture opens in the centre of its southern side, with a descending staircase in a corridor flanked by side ramps. As it flushed out the passage was forgot by a roadblock slab of granite, with two more blocking slabs at further points. The position of the burial chamber was to a lower place the vertical axis of the pyramid, after working three times in a series of light corridors. A single massive block of red quartzite fills the burial chamber, with a trench for the coffin and a carved corner for the canopic jars - a similar organisation and closing chemical mechanism to Amenemhat III's burial chamber at Hawara. The ceiling was plausibly put up by vaulted limestone blocks. The whole complex was involved by a wavy margin wall built from mudbrick, with an entrance at the south-east corner. The mudbrick mortuary temple, dwelling of a large chamber or court with magazines on either side, was involved to the east side of the enclosure wall, rather than to the pyramid itself. There is no line of a causeway or valley temple.


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Amenemhat IV (1799-1787)

 Hieroglyphic name:
Hieroglyphic name of Amenemhet IV
Amenemhat IV name: Amenemhat or Amenemhet

Statue of Amenemhet IV
Amenemhat IV prevailed from 1799 B.C.E. until his dying. The son of Amenemhat III and  probably  Queen  Aat,  he  served  as coregent with his father for two years and kept the familys projects in the Faiyum, the lush area in middle Egypt. He is considered to have raised the temple of Qasr El-saghah, just north of Lake Qarun. He also completed Amenemhat III's temple at Medinet Maadi, and he sent an expedition  to  the  Sinai and  defended  Trade pacts. Sobekneferu, the sister of King Amenemhat IV, whom he had married, assumed the throne when he died afterwards a brief reign. Sobekneferu  thus  got  a  woman  pharaoh,  the only  woman  taking  that  title  in  the  Middle Kingdom (2040-1640 B.C.E.). The two pyramids at Mazghuna, in the  southeastern  part  of  Dashur, are  imputed  to  this  royal couple, the last swayer of the Twelfth Dynasty, getting to an end this royal line and an full historical period.


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Pyramid of Amenemhat III at Hawara

The pyramid of Amenemhat III of (1842-1797 BCE) exposed of limestone casing, a irregular mound with good views. Charm is forgotten, but on the south side. Sarcophagus was looed, found next to daughter Nefer-Ptah. To the ast dwells a bone and bandate littered necroplis. Besides the site of the Labrynth, with 3000 chambers, probably trhe mortuary temple of Amenemhat III. Situation of the 146 Fayoum portraits in the cemetary (beeswax-based paint and formal embalming. As the oasis of el-Faiyum got more important during Dynasty XII, a number of religious memorials were built there and the following pharaoh to conception his pyramid in the realm was Amenemhat III. This was not the king's first superb of burial site - he had previously made a pyramid at Dahshur, to the north, during the gone part of his long dominate, but due to structural tries which became apparent during the expression, Amenemhat opted to get a second pyramid at Hawara, good the site of his grandfather's repository at el-Lahun. It was to be the gone major pyramid involved in Egypt. Pyramid of Amenemhat III  The Labyrinth extending to the south across the canal

The King's second pyramid was developed with a core of mudbricks and a white limestone casing, which was withdrawn in Roman times. The pyramid was entered directly through the incase on the south side with a staircase and corridor descending into the substructure, which today is flooded by groundwater. A series of corridors and blind passages wound about the only of the pyramid, before in the end coming to the burial chamber at a full level to the west of the pyramid's centre. This was passed via a concealed entree in the cap of one of the passages and was forgot by a massive quartzite slab. Because of his live with the Dahshur pyramid, Amenemhat's architects took extra care in rewarding and preservative the burial chamber, by building a series of triangular headers which held a high gabled roof of large limestone blocks beneath another overleap of mudbricks. The chamber itself was a single part of quartzite, considering over 100 tonnes, into which was carved a trough which held the sarcophagus  nd canopic chests. The sealing bar of the chamber was an enormous slab of quartzite which was ingeniously brought down into place by means of slowly releasing the sand which had supported the stone slab into side galleries. The King's burial chamber was sufficiently maintained to withstand the extended weight of the brickwork and stone above it, but it would seem that the complicated preventive measures taken to deter robbers was ultimately frustrated. When Petrie investigated the sarcophagus in Amenemhat's burial chamber he discovered remains of a burned inner coffin, presumably damaged by ancient grave-robbers. A second wooden coffin was found in an hall, along with a carved alabaster offering-table enduring the names of a Princess Neferu-ptah, considered to be a daughter of the King and it was assumed that the princess had been buried with her father. However, in 1956 the continues of an almost destroyed small pyramid 2 km south-east of the King's pyramid was investigated, and the tomb of Neferu-ptah was found. Her red granite sarcophagus and other objects written with her name were discovered in the burial chamber, but up to date archaeologists are still obscure about the real position of Neferu-ptah's burial.

Continues of a Roman statue on the eastside side of the pyramid   Entrance corridor on the southeastern side of the pyramid   Remains of crocodile rests from the mortuary temple Within the inclosure, immediately to the southwest of Amenemhat's pyramid, Petrie dug the King's mortuary temple - an big and very complicated social system, which is now so broken that it is difficult to restore a plan. This is probably the social system which classical authors concerned to as 'the Labyrinth' which so subject early travelers. This unique constructing, covering an area of 2.8 hectares, was discovered by Herodotus as having been made from a single rock and to check 3 thousand rooms linked by winding passages and courts. He may have exaggerated as other writers discorded about the number of chambers and romances. Strabo called the complex 'a palace written of as many smaller palaces as were at one time nomes', that is, forty two. Petrie described remains of 2 statues of the gods Sobek and Hathor in the social structure and a statue of Amenemhat III close in the irrigation canal. Unfortunately the 'Labyrinth' today is gentle more than a bed of dust, its stone quarried wide since Romn times. It extends crosswise the modern canal to the southwest of the pyramid.

The pyramid complex was involved by a perimeter wall with a causeway leading from the south-eastern niche to the valley temple, broken of which have been fully enquired. In a cemetery north of the pyramid complex, Petrie likewise found 146 mummy-portraits going steady to the Roman Period. One of these can be considered in the small museum at Kom Ushim and more Faiyum Portraits are in Cairo Museum.


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Temple of Amenemhat III at Medinet Madi

The debris of the Amenemhat III's
temple at Medinet Maadi
Temple of Amenemhat III  in a sandy bright, boulevard of sphinxes and lions -- one stubbly and another ruffled like a renaissance grandee. Built for XII dynasty Pharaohs Amenemhat III and IV and decidated to Sobek and Renenutet. Ptolemies contributed two smart sphinxes.

Legent attributes demolition to the 11th century Nedj warriors black by the town's refuasl of cordial reception. Embankment is very the beach in ancient times, today nearly 68 meter tall. Limstone is a very soft medium; checks cartouches for both Amenemhats.




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Pyramid of Amenemhat III at Dashur (The Black Pyrmiad)

The Black Pyrmiad (Pyramid of Amenemhat III)
About 2 km to the eastside of Snefru's Bent Pyramid at Dahshur is one of a serial publications of three Middle Kingdom pyramids, a dark ruined structure raising from the sand and seeing more like a rocky rock outcrop than the remains of a pyramid. Sometimes called the Black Pyramid, Amenemhat III's repository was built with a substance of dark unfired mudbrick, but without the instrumental stone model of other constructions of its type. Its other shape is largely due to the effects of braving out after its outer limestone layer was taken by robbers. Amenemhat III Nimaatre, the son and successor of Senwosret III (who had also built a pyramid at Dahshur), was one of the close great rulers of Dynasty XII. The Black Pyramid was visited by Perring and Lepsius in the mid-1800s and first inquired by Jacques de Morgan and Georges Legrain in 1894-5. It was during an review of the Dahshur site by the Egyptian Antiquities Administration in 1900 that a pretty dark basalt pyramidion was got on the eastern side of the social system, decorated with hieroglyphic letterings on each side (now in Cairo Museum). It is not known whether the pyramidion was ever set in place on the top of the pyramid, though it appears unlikely because of its well maintained condition. The small monument evokes important questions because the name of the God Amun has been deleted from the letterings  presumably during the reign of Akhenaten, which evokes that it was not at that time in place. The Black Pyramid has been re-investigated in modern times by the "German Archaeological Institute" in Cairo, took by Deiter Arnold since 1976. The base of the pyramid has a complex plan dissenting from other Dynasty XII structures, with two entrances connected by corridors. The first entree, low on the south-east recession of the eastern side, has a coming staircase leading to a warren of passages, chambers and side-chambers at various levels on the eastside side of the pyramid. The royal burial chamber was bound east to west with a rounded roof and like most of the black chambers was clad in fine white limestone. A large white pink granite sarcophagus was found on the western side of the sepulture chamber.

The second catch, on the western face of the pyramid, mirrors the first, and leads to the burial flats of two of Amenemhats queens. The first chamber, reached from the going down corridor belongs a Queen Aat and although we do not have a name for the owner of the second apartment, it would seem that two queens were buried in the pyramid. In Aats chamber a sarcophagus was found, similar in decoration to that of the king, along with a canopic chest and several items of funerary equipment which had been left behind by robbers. A sarcophagus was also found in the second queens chamber. Different series of passageways links the kings and queens flats via an black corridor lying outside the southeastern side of the pyramid. It has been evoked that this may represent a south tomb alike to the dummy tomb improved by Djoser at Saqqara. The pyramid is surrounded by two perimeter walls, constructed from mudbricks and white. The inner wall, which was mounted with niches on its outer sides, bisected a easy mortuary temple on the east, which is now nearly completely finished. The inner part of the funerary temple lay of a long providing hall up to the first border wall and the outer part had a large court with a portico put up by 18 papyrus columns.


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Buildling of Amenemhat III

Sphinx statue of King Amenemhat III
1- First pyarmid at Dashur collapsed. Second pyramid at Hawara, may have been the
Labyrinth

2- Built temple of Sobek in Crocidopolis (Kiman Faris). expanded temple of Ptah at Memphis. built chapel to Renenutet at Medinet Maadi. Temple of Quban in Nubia.

3- Colossi at Biyahmu

4- Statues of archiac gods offering fish and geese. Set of sphinxes that were reused at Tanis

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Amenemhat III (1844-1797)

Hieroglyphic name of Amenemhet III
Hieroglyphic name:
Hieroglyphic name of
Amenemhet III (snfr k3 ra)








Montuhotep III name: Amenemhat or Amenemhet  or Amenemht, Nimaatr

Head of Amenemhat II
Amenemhat III was the sixth King of the 12th dynasty of Egypt, son and replacement of Senusret III. With Amenemhat III, which taken as name neswt bity of Nymaatre, the Egypt of the Middle Empire reached the period of greater economic prosperity, with a well-run country, the nomarchs and compliant nobleness and the credit of foreign. After some construction projects of his father (Semna and Kumma defenses), could engage in agricultural projects of powerful, such as that practiced in the Faiyum, recovering great nearby areas for polish. His long reign - some 46 years - granted should at least twenty-one expeditions to the Sinai in search of metals and other products, as it is known by more than 60 adjustments there left, what cold complemented the wealth of Egypt. Dispatches to the stone pits of the Uadi Hammamat, Aswan and Toshka were besides made, and stayed removal of pits in Tura.

Amenemhat III carried out pregnant construction works (heavy Shedet [Crocodilopolis] Temple of Sobek and Hathor Temple of Serabit el-Khadim, on Sinai; Temple of Sobek -Renenutet Medinet Maadi; Kuban Temple in Nubia). However, the most rich was the dead room temple, with its old palace, which broken in Hawara, known as maze and named with words of admiration by Herodotus, Diodorus and Strabo. It was taken to figure two pyramids, one in Dashur and different in Hawara, where it was buried, as well as a Cenotaph as a mastaba in Abydos. It was delivered the goods by his son Amenemhat IV, who had acted as it corregente for a hardly a years. Between their wives should quotation Aat, another strange name, and Hetepti, mother of the identical Amenemhat IV, who was buried in Dashur. Amenemhat III, who had noted a Sed Festival, was deified at his death with Lamares name (so called besides Manetho), and he received cult in the Fayum area. Amenemhat III some statues, blue but direct, known case of granite Sphinx with his look (Cairo Museum), the head of Copenhagen or the early head (10 cm in height) of the Egyptian Museum in the Vatican.

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Tomb of Amenmeht I at Beni Hassan

Tomb of Amenemhat I at Beni Hassan
Tomb of Amenmeht I settled in Beni Hassan, in Minya. It takes columns and a niche for statues (instead of a serdab), the trademarks of a XII dynasty tomb. Proto-doric columns. laced reed-mat cheiling pattern. Conains a text concerning to the death of Senusert I. Fit with a a scribe bullying deadbeats on loans. Niche holds simulacrums of Amenemhat. Regaional regulator and command-in-chief for King Senusert I. Making scene on the right wall.




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Pyramid of Amenemhat I

Pyramid of Amenemhat I
Mostly inaccesable and gone. Commemorates the foundation of the XII dynasty. Settled on the western bank of the Nile, between Saqqara and Meidum, about 50 km south of Cairo, was the ancient mansion and necropolis of the first two rules of Dynasty XII at Lisht. During the gone Middle Kingdom the capital had temporarily went away from Memphis to Thebes, until the first Rex of Dynasty XII, Amenemhat I established a new manse, 'Itjawy', near the cool village of Lisht. The town site has not yet been discovered, but is thought to have been particular to the 2 pyramids built in this area and noted in texts going out to the period. The pyramids of Senwosret I and Amenemhat I can be seen from the great road when travelling south to Cairo, though today barely different from the desert mounds. Amenemhat's pyramid from the southeastern   Northern entrance to Amenemhat's pyramid. Recent archaeological inquiry has proposed that Amenemhat I may have begun his royal tomb at Thebes, set the hill of Qurna, where a political program, formerly imputed to Mentuhotep Sankhkare was begun in the style of the earlier Temple of Mentuhotep Nebhepetre at Deir el-Bahri. For some ground the founder of Dynasty XII moved the centre of administration north to Lisht and built his pyramid complex hot. Amenemhat's pyramid is placed at the northern end of the necropolis.

Maspero first entered the pyramid of Amenemhat in 1882 and the necropolis was further researched by the "French Institute of Oriental Archaeology" through 1884-1885. In the early years of the 20th century it was hollowed by the American dispatch of the Metropolitan Museum of New York, who still stay to work there. Mudbrick building and stone case   Site of the mortuary temple on the eastern side.Earlier over 55m high the pyramid today is sadly depleted to around 20m which is due not only to ancient hooking of its stuffs but also to its poor building method. Pyramid construction had refused since the fair monuments were built at Giza, and although some stone (from earlier structures) was used, much of the pyramid was fabricated with unfired mudbricks. The core was of small rough blocks of limestone and filled with junk and mudbricks - which would have been bad and plentiful in a region particular to the Faiyum. Maspero famous on his first visit to Amenemhat's pyramid that blocks of stone from other royal repositories had been applied and the names of Khufu, Khafre, Unas and Pepy have been found there. The charm to the monument is in the northern face where a gradually gentle passage, lined with pink granite, hails from ground level to a square chamber above the pyramid's central axis vertebra and a rearing shaft to the sepulture chamber. Modern excavation of the subterranean burial chamber is hampered by the prime water which now floods the chamber. Covering the entrance was a chapel, a false door at the rear disguising the entrance to the easy passage.

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Amenemhat I (1991-1962)

Hieroglyphic name:

Amenemhat I  name: Amenemhat or Amenemhet

Relief of Amenemhat I
King Amenemhat I  (ruled  c.  1985-1955  BC). Throne  name  Sehetepibre. Son of Senusret and Nefret. He is first old as vizier of  Mentuhotep IV of  the 11th Dynasty, and  must  be  corresponding  to  the abandon of Dynasty 12, although it is not clear if he came to the pot  in peace  or  as  a  issue of  a  coup  dtat.  Amenemhat I proved  a  strong  and  effective  ruler,  rendering  a  new  capital  at Itjtawy, now Lisht in the Faiyum. He started the campaign of conquering of Nubia and also developed a series of munitions along Egypts Sinai  border  famous  as  the  Walls  of  the  Ruler.  He  obviously  installed  his  son  Senusret I as  coregent,  though  this  has  been doubted by some Egyptologists. Amenemhat I was gone after 30 years of rule in an apparent palace cabal that was later rough by his son. He was forgotten in a pyramid complex at Lisht. A wisdom text in his name, The Instruction of Amenemhat I, was written  after  his  death,  presumptively  during  his  sons  rule.

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The Armant Relief of Montuhotep III

The Armant Relief of
Montuhotep III
Mentuhotep III continued his father's construction policy, as is shown by this backup, found in Armant and now in the Brooklyn Museum in New York. It represents the king wearing the Red Crown of Lower Egypt (left) or wearing the nemes head-dress (right). In the part of the relief to the left, the king is doing a ritual run, often linked with the Heb-Sed festival. This scene is represented by some as an reading that Mentuhotep III at least celebrated one such festival, which would imply that his reign must at least have went 30 years. It must, however, be noted that this character of scene, while linked with the Heb-Sed festival, is a very fair theme in temple medallion, that was also used by kings with very short-lived reigns who never got to observing their first jubilee. The prospect to the right remains the Lower-Egyptian setting, in that the king's name is faced with the name of the Lower-Egyptian goddess Uto.

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Montuhotep III (2010-1998)

Hieroglyphic name: 
Hieroglyphic name of Montuhotep III


Montuhotep III name: Sankhkare or Montuhotep III or Mentuhotep III.

Statue of Mentuhotep III
He reigned from 2010 B.C.E. until his dying. Montuhotep III was the son of Montuhotep II and Queen Tem (2) or perhaps  Neferu (1). He  rose  the  throne  at  an full  age,  and  he  is  shown  on  the  Abydos and Saqqara Ruler Lists and in the Turin Canon. A practiced of his fathers military campaigns, Montuhotep III rebuilt fortresses in the eastern Delta and sent an excursion to Punt. He also had swells dug along outing paths and reopened the quarries at Wadi Hammamat. His mortuary  temple  was  established  at Deir El-bahri, on the  western  shore  at  Thebes,  but  it  was  not  good. Montuhotep also put up a temple to the god Thoth on a hill steep the Nile. The letters of an standard named Hekanakhte, a mortuary priest in Thebes, provided substantial information about Montuhotep III's dominate. The heir,  Montuhotep  IV,  was  born  to  Queen  Imi. Another run was Queen Amunet.

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