The XII dynasty of the era of the Middle Kingdom in Egypt was very significant for him. And not only by the fact that its pharaohs again annexed Nubia, Sinai, Libya, Palestine and Syria to the possessions of Egypt; other Egyptian kings before them, and then more than once did the same. It was nothing new for the country that they built temples. Another thing is important: that they knew how to rule in such a way that they gave the country peace and erected buildings for the benefit of everyone, and not just themselves and the gods. For Egypt, such an attitude was so exceptional that these pharaohs earned special gratitude from their contemporaries, which, you see, is worth a lot. "He makes [Egypt] green more than the great Hapi, - you can read in the" teaching "about Pharaoh Amenemhat III, who began the construction of an irrigation system in the Fayum oasis, - he gives food to those who serve him." So, not for all Egyptian pharaohs, it was the war that was the main source of income, the goal and meaning of life. There were also people who were otherwise motivated and oriented …
What remains today of the pyramid of Amenemhat I.
It is not clear why Amenemhat I moved his capital from Thebes to the north, and here, on the border of Upper and Lower Egypt, he built himself a new capital, called Ittaui - "The one that took possession of both lands." It is known that it was founded and even when construction began, but where it was exactly is not known. No traces were found. Although it is known that Amenemhat I ordered to build himself a pyramid nearby - a real tomb, that is, he continued the tradition of the Old Kingdom. His example was followed by his co-ruler and successor Senusert I; but the other kings from Ittaui decided to build themselves pyramids elsewhere.
Entrance to the pyramid of Amenemhat I.
The tomb of Amenemhat I can be reached from the village of Matanie, which is located 60 kilometers south of Cairo; then another three kilometers from it you need to walk or drive to the west. It is not easy to find it, since its height today is only 15 m. The original height of the pyramid was 55 meters, and the length of the side of the base was 78.5 meters. The most interesting thing is that it is impossible to get into the burial chamber of this pyramid. And it may very well be that the ancient robbers could not do this either. They left behind as many as five (!) Unfinished mines, apparently hoping to get there. But they did not get there, as it was flooded with water that somehow gets there from the Nile, and the Nile, of course, is impossible to draw out. The idea immediately comes to mind to launch a diver into the chamber, since they found a way into it. But … over the millennia, the water has greatly eroded the passages. It's dark and silt, and the ceilings are half-collapsed. Climbing there is like suicide.
Masonry of adobe bricks in the pyramid of Amenemkhet I.
Plan of the complex of the pyramid of Amenemkhet I in El Lisht: 1- pyramid of Amenemkhet I, 2- entrance, 3- inclined corridor, 4- burial chamber, 5- memorial temple, 6- path for processions, 7- inner fence, 8- tombs of princesses, 9- outer fence.
Of course, again, there may be some super-rich … philanthropist, who can be advised to hammer pipes into the ground from the side of the Nile. Let liquid nitrogen flow through them. Freeze the soil and this underground crack. Then pump out the water from the dungeon. Strengthen ceilings and conduct research. Suddenly, well, suddenly there is another treasure. Then it will pay off. And if there is an empty sarcophagus?
As for the structure of the pyramid, it is composed of irregularly shaped small stones, which are reinforced with a frame and lined with polished slabs, and many of them have been removed from the pyramids of the Old Kingdom, which had already begun to collapse by that time. The burial complex was surrounded by two walls: an inner one of limestone blocks that surrounded the pyramid itself and the funeral temple; and the outer one, built of mud bricks. Within the outer ring, mastabs of courtiers and 22 mine graves of members of the royal family and their entourage were discovered: the burial of Amenemkhet's mother Nefret, one of his wives and mother Senusret I Nefertatenen, his daughter Neferu - sister and at the same time the main wife of Pharaoh Senusret. In addition to them, the burial place of the vizier Amenemhat Antefoker and his treasurer Rehuergersen was also found here, and at the southwestern corner of the pyramid, the burial of Senebtisi, dating back to the end of the XII dynasty, contained several rich decorations.
Pyramid of Senusert I. Plan of the pyramid.
The Pyramid of Senusret I was built two kilometers to the south. It rises in the middle of the sand dunes and looks a little better compared to the pyramid of Amenemhat I. In any case, about a third of its height of 61 meters remains, and even today the remains of limestone cladding are visible on the walls. The entrance to the pyramid was traditionally located on the north side, but it is hidden behind the ruins of a chapel. True, next to it there is a tunnel hole made by robbers, and they made two of them! Apparently they really wanted to get inside the pyramid. But at a depth of twelve meters, they again ran into water and were forced to abandon their predatory attempts. But the archaeologists did not penetrate further. But on the other hand, they carefully examined its ground part, and back in 1882, from the inscriptions on the fragments of the burial utensils, they established who was the owner of this pyramid. Then it was subjected to probing - that's how, not only the "Great Pyramids" in search of secret rooms with secret knowledge - it was subjected to it, and it showed that inside it had a frame of eight diagonally stacked blocks and 19 more partitions located between them.
Burial complex of the pyramid of Senusret I.
During the excavations, the ruins of what was a memorial temple were found, which turned out to be very similar to the temple of Pharaoh Piopi II; they also found the remains of a small ritual pyramid with a base of 21x21 meters and a height of 19 meters. They also found nine absolutely wonderful statues of the pharaoh, slightly taller than a human being, and two wooden statues that were smaller in height. But most importantly, archaeologists have found here what glorified this pyramid forever: the ruins of as many as ten small pyramids surrounding it and ten tombs of Senusret's wives and daughters. Again, since the pyramid's dungeons are flooded, one can hope to find an intact burial there. But … just who will get there?
The surviving facing of the pyramid of Senusret I.
Three successors of Senusret I chose Dashur for their pyramids, but they were built slightly east of the ancient pyramids of Pharaoh Sneferu. The oldest one was built by Amenemhat II and it is higher than two neighboring ones, built of bricks. The dungeon in it is very complex and, without a plan, it is better not to meddle in it. The sarcophagus is made of sandstone and is so embedded in the floor that it is not even visible.
This is how the pyramids and the entire burial complex of Senusret II could look like.
The pyramid of Senusret II was described in the previous article. Here it should be added that not far from the pyramid, eight mastabas and the ruins of the small pyramid of the queen were also found. In the tomb on the south side in the courtyard, the daughter of Senusret II Sat-Hathor-Iunet was buried, and here they found the "Illahun Treasure" (located in the Metropolitan Museum, New York), consisting of three ebony boxes, which contained inlaid gold pectorals, an amazingly beautiful diadem with a tall, thin gold feather, a headband with gold rosettes and a whole collection of jewelry, as well as cosmetics. All boxes were kept in a wall niche. During a flood in ancient times, this niche was most likely filled with silt. Therefore, the robbers who climbed into the tomb of the princess simply did not notice them, because they were in a hurry.
Pyramid of Senusret II at El Lahun.
Entrance to the pyramid of Senusret II.
The Pyramid of Senusret III from this pyramid is located a kilometer to the north. It is grayish-brown in color, since it is made of raw bricks, and its height is quite insignificant. However, at one time or for its time (let's say) it was the highest pyramid of the Middle Kingdom. As the archaeologist de Morgan was able to establish from the slope of its preserved corner blocks, the angle of inclination of its edges was 56 °, and the height was 77.7 meters. The entrance to it is located in the west. The system of passages under it is extremely confusing: there are many corridors and traps-wells. However, all this body did not save him. The king's mummy disappeared with all the gifts. Only an empty sarcophagus remained.
Senusert III. British museum.
Pyramid of Amenemkhet III in Hawar near Crocodilopolis.
The third among these pyramids, the southernmost, belongs to Amenemhat III - the successor of Senusret III. He, again, not so much fought as built, and this became famous. Moreover, he ordered to build himself again two pyramids - one in Dashur, and the other in Hawara. That is, he acted like the kings of the Old Kingdom. But only from adobe brick. Granite was used only for facing the burial chambers and the pyramidion, which, incidentally, was found.
In the Dashur pyramid, two entrances were made at once: one on the north side led the robbers into a maze of corridors that ended in dead ends; and the other, in the southeastern corner, allowed one to descend into the burial chamber, where the sarcophagus stood. But … he was not buried there and, apparently, completely confused the poor robbers with his precautions.
Another photo of the pyramid complex of Amenemkhet III in Hawar. In the foreground are the ruins of the famous Labyrinth.
The Khavarian pyramid today looks like a clay hill 20 meters high. The passage to the burial chamber ends at a depth of 10 meters. The camera itself is completely unusual. It is hewn from a solid block of yellow quartzite and weighs over 100 tons. Its sides are polished like an alabaster vase, although quartzite is a very durable material. The volume of the chamber is 6, 6X2, 4X1, 8 meters, its cover is also made of quartzite with a thickness of 1, 2 meters and weighs about 45 tons. It was lowered to its place, apparently already completely finished. Most likely, sand was dug out from under it, with which the mine was filled in advance and so it sank. Well, obviously there was no smell of aliens, Atlanteans, or ancient Russes here, although - yes, to hew "such" out of quartzite … you have to be able to do that. But… this innovation ended! The pyramid itself was built from primitive mud bricks! In 1889, the archaeologist Petrie did not find the entrance to the pyramid, and decided to do what the ancient Egyptian robbers were doing: he began to dig a tunnel under the pyramid. He dug for many weeks, got to the cell, but it turned out that water from the Nile also got into it through its broken roof. But Petrie did not give up: he stripped naked, dived into the liquid mud (although he could get sick with bilharziasis, get rheumatism and pneumonia), but in the end he was convinced only that the ancient thieves were ahead of him. Nevertheless, his scientific feat was rewarded. He found in the cell broken stone supplies for canopies and … two sarcophagi at once. Two in one burial chamber! Later it turned out that Amenemkhot's daughter Ptahnefru was buried in the second one, and she also owned a small pyramid located nearby, and Amenemkhet III himself was supposed to be in the other …
This is the "shoe" worn by the deceased pharaohs, and in particular Thutmose III, who lived in 1479-1425. BC.
However, the benefit to science from this pyramid was not only that all this was dug up in it. Texts have survived to this day, from which it became known that 40 brick molders, 50 clay porters, 600 brick porters, 30 sand porters, 250 stonecutters, 1,500 stone block porters, 200 boatmen, 600 workers moving stone blocks, 1500 handymen. A total of 4,770 people, and it was these people who built a pyramid 75 meters high!
Lapis lazuli collar. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The last two pyramids of the Middle Kingdom, the base of which is 52.5X52.5 meters, are located near the village of Mazgun, again not far from Dashur. The quartzite sarcophagus was taken from the southern sarcophagus to Cairo, but in the northern one it stands in a cell, and its lid lies on the floor. Petrie's assistant E. McKay, who discovered both of these pyramids in 1911, attributed the southern one as belonging to Amenemhat IV, and the northern one - Sebeknefrur, his sister, the last queen of the XII dynasty. True, not all Egyptologists agree with this.
And this is how the collar of dried flowers from the famous tomb of Tut looks like.
But there are also completely unnamed pyramids in Egypt, about which they do not argue, but they cannot figure out anything. The first was discovered back in 1843 in Abu Roash by the archaeologist Lepsius. He went down into it, found a sarcophagus, but he could not determine whose it was.
The unnamed pyramid in Abu Roash was discovered in 1843 by Lepsius. He examined her and measured what was left of her; he went down to her burial chamber and found there a sarcophagus, but without an inscription. And after 100 years, nothing remained of it. Local residents let her into building material.
There is an unnamed pyramid at Saqqara. Its area is 80X80 meters, and because it is built of adobe bricks, and inside there is a quartzite sarcophagus weighing 160 tons, we can say that it belongs to the XII dynasty, or to the beginning of the XIII or even the XIV.
Pectorals from "Dashur Treasure"
And then the Middle Kingdom fell, Egypt was conquered, there was no time for the pyramids, and it was here that the last pyramid in Egypt was ordered to be built by the little-known king Khinjer - the pharaoh of the beginning of the Second transitional period.
The pyramid was built in the southern part of the Sakkara necropolis, 200 meters north of the aforementioned unnamed pyramid. It was opened in 1931, and it was possible to find out that its area was 52.5X52.5 meters, the slope of the edges was 56 °, and the height was 37.4 meters. The construction technology is still the same - adobe brickwork, followed by cladding with slabs of white limestone with a black granite pyramidion at the top. It was surrounded by two walls: the inner one, built of limestone and the outer one, made of adobe bricks. Inside them was a companion pyramid and three more tombs.
The Egyptians were skilled goldsmiths and made many beautiful items of gold. Here is a scarab that belonged to Khatnofer - the mother of the famous Senenmut, an ancient Egyptian architect and statesman of the XIII dynasty of the New Kingdom and the lover of the woman-pharaoh Hatshepsut.
The entire underground part of the pyramid is well preserved, but, alas, there is nothing there. But in the tombs around, hundreds of fragments of burial vessels and small items of burial utensils were collected, which, apparently, the robbers lost in a hurry. A broken pyramidion was also found here. And on it and on the shards of several vessels, they found the inscriptions with the name of Hinger. Here they found his statue with … negroid features.
An unfinished burial complex with the Hinger pyramid at Saqqara.
Then, then the Hyksos were driven out and the era of the New Kingdom began. The temples built by Amenhotep III and Ramses II tell us that they were in the hands of a real construction fever. Their power was as boundless as the power of the pharaohs of the Old Kingdom, and the samples of their creations stood before their eyes. But … they have already ceased to build the pyramids.
Instead of pyramids, they began to build such temples. The Horus Temple at Edhu is the second largest temple in Egypt after the Karnak Temple.
