Through the Eras

Architecture and Designa single entrance from the south, with the southern entrancerecalling the general north/south orientation of thebuilding, as was the design of Djoser’s pyramid complexat Saqqara. In general Amenemhet III followed the patternof Djoser’s pyramid complex when he built atHawara. The Hawara complex was 385 by 158 meters(1,263 by 518 feet) with the length oriented north/south.The pyramid temple was south of the pyramid, completelyunlike the eastern pyramid temples found during the OldKingdom. The entrance to the walled complex was at thesoutheast corner, again mirroring Djoser’s choice atSaqqara. The pyramid temple was so vast that ancientGreek and Roman tourists called it the Labyrinth, comparingit to the legendary Labyrinth of Minos in Crete.Today Amenemhet III’s building has almost entirely disappeared,the result of quarrying in later times. Only thedescriptions left by the Greek and Roman authorsHerodotus (484–430 B.C.E.), Manetho (third centuryB.C.E.), Diodorus Siculus (first century B.C.E.), Strabo (64B.C.E.–19 C.E.), Pliny (23–79 C.E.), and Pomponius Mela(first century C.E.) allow modern scholars to analyze itsmeaning. Herodotus thought the Labyrinth surpassed thepyramids in the wonder it inspired. Herodotus, DiodorusSiculus, and Pliny all disagree on the number of roomsand courts in the building, but they all imply that eachof the administrative districts of Egypt (nomes) and/oreach of the regional gods had a courtyard and room withinthe Labyrinth. German archaeologist Dieter Arnold recognizedthat these authors were describing a very large versionof Djoser’s Jubilee Festival (sed ) courtyard. Here too,each of the nome gods of Egypt was represented with itsown small temple or chapel. Clearly Amenemhet III’spyramid temple represented this very ancient tradition ofproviding a Jubilee Festival courtyard where the kingcould celebrate in the next world.DRAWING ON TRADITION. The kings of theTwelfth Dynasty drew on all of the previous traditionsof pyramid building for their new structures. They wereclearly aware of Djoser’s pyramid complex in Saqqara,the standard Old Kingdom pyramid complex; NebhepetreMentuhotep’s funerary temple; and even the mostancient royal burials at Abydos. Yet they seem to be unawareof the construction techniques practiced by theirpredecessors. Twelfth-dynasty builders continued to experiment,but never successfully built buildings as sturdyas those built in the Old Kingdom. Moreover, it is neverentirely clear what they hoped to accomplish by imitatingone ancient tradition after another. Without supportingtextual evidence, it might never be possible todo more than recognize the references that each Twelfthdynastyking made to the past.SOURCESHoward Carter, “Report on the Tomb of Mentuhotep I,”Annales du Service d’Antiquités Egyptien 2 (1901):201–205.Mark Lehner, The Complete Pyramids (London: Thames andHudson, 1997).Rainer Stadelmann, Die Ägyptischen Pyramiden: vom Ziegelbauzum Weltwunder (Mainz am Rhein: P. von Zabern,1985).Miroslav Verner, Die Pyramiden (Reinbek bei Hamburg,Germany: Rowohlt Verlag, 1998).SEE ALSO Visual Arts: The Middle KingdomROCK-CUT TOMBS OF THEMIDDLE KINGDOMLOCATION, PLANS, AND POLITICAL POWER. Oneindication of the central government’s control over itsofficials in ancient Egypt was the location and plan ofofficial’s tombs. At times when the central governmentexercised strong control over the provinces, officialswanted to be buried near the king. This was clearly thecase in the Old Kingdom when cities of the dead surroundedthe pyramids. These Old Kingdom mastabaswere gifts from the king to his top officials. In generaltheir plans were similar since they were all built in thesame place by the same people. In contrast, during theearly Middle Kingdom, provincial officials preferred tolocate their tombs in their home provinces. Nomarchs,the officials who ruled the 42 Egyptian provinces thatEgyptologists call nomes, established their own cities ofthe dead that included many local officials. This traditionof local burial began in the First Intermediate Period(2130–2008 B.C.E.), a time when the absence of acentral government caused the individual nomes to behaveas independent entities. Even with the reestablishmentof strong central government in the TwelfthDynasty, nomarchs who lived during the first four reignsof the period (1938–1837 B.C.E.) preferred burial in theirhometowns rather than in Itj-tawy, the national capital.Furthermore, in the Middle Kingdom, local variationsin tomb plans were common. Local traditions, especiallyof rock-cut tombs, grew in Beni Hasan, Bersheh, andAsyut, among other places. Then in the reign of SenwosretIII (1836–1818 B.C.E.), the burial of provincialofficials returned to the area around the king’s pyramidin relatively similar mastaba tombs. Egyptologists regardthis change as evidence that the king had reasserted hisauthority over the provinces. A comparison of three42 Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.)