The Middle Kingdom
(2060-1785 B.C.)
As mentioned above, Mentuhotep II, one of
the kings of the Eleventh Dynasty, reunited Egypt
and ruled both Upper and Lower Egypt . He is,
therefore, the founder of the Middle Kingdom which includes the second part of
the Eleventh Dynasty and the Twelfth Dynasty and in which Egypt was a united
kingdom governed by kings who bore the title “King of
Upper and Lower Egypt .”
The Second Part of the Eleventh Dynasty
(2060-2000B.C.)
During the second half of the Eleventh
Dynasty the following kings reigned over both Upper and Lower
Egypt :
Mentuhotep
II 2060-2019 B.C.
Mentuhotep
III 2019-2007 B.C.
MentuhotepIV 2007-2000 B.C.
Mentuhotep
II
Mentuhotep II is considered to be the
first ruler of the Middle Kingdom. He reigned for about 51 years: the first ten
years as king of Upper Egypt only and the next 41 years as king of Upper and Lower Egypt . He was a very powerful king. He conquered
the Heracleopolitans, the Asiatics, the Nubians, and the Libyans as represented
on some blocks remaining from a temple which he built at El-Gabalein (near
Armant). His throne name was most certainly Neb-hepet-re, meaning "Pleased
is the Lord Re".
His birth name,
Mentuhotep, means "The God Montu is Content". Montu was a Theban god
of war. Mentuhotep ruled Egypt
from Thebes, which until then, had not been as prominent as it
later became. He was probably the son or heir of Intef III, for a number of
reasons. First, there is a relief located at Wadi Shatt el-Rigal, near
Gebel es-Silsila, that incorporates a colossal figure of Mentuhotep II dwarfing
three other figures believed to be his mother, Intef III and Khety his
chancellor. There is also a masonry block found at Tod with reliefs portraying Mentuhotep II and
three kings, named Intef, lined up behind him.
Mentuhotep
worked hard to enhance his political authority and to restore the unification
of Egypt
Part of the Jubilee celebration
scene of Mentuhotep II from Armant.
Montuhotep's
principle wife was Tem. A second major wife was Neferu, who mothered his heir
to the throne, and we also know of a wife named Henhenet who died in
childbirth.
Though he reunited
Egypt Egyptian State
Wooden models of Egyptian Soldiers
His reign indicated
a highly militaristic focus. Near his temple at Thebes
In year 14
of his rule, we know that a revolt took place in Abydos by the Hierakleopolitan forces, and that he quickly
crushed it. Afterwards, his armies slowly drove the Hierakleopolitan
forces north eventually leading to his overall rule of Egypt, but even by year
39 of his rule, when the country was well under his control, he continued his
military campaigns into Nubia. One such expedition was led by his Chancellor,
Khety.
Mentuhotep's II mortuary complex at
Deir el-Bahari
However, he did
have a long reign, perhaps as long as 50 years, and peace did finally return to
Egypt Abydos ,
Aswan and Armant. His
greatest building work, however, was his temple and tomb on the west bank at Thebes temple
of Queen
Hatshepsut. His mortuary complex consisted of a small
pyramid surrounded by colonnades and terraces and approached by a long
causeway apparently from a lower temple. His
mortuary temple is called Akh Sut Nebhepetra, "Splendid are
the places of Nehepetre". It was the first to be built in Deir el-Bahri.
The temple is smaller and not so well-preserved as is the later temple built
by Hatshepsut.
The front
part of the temple was made of limestone and was dedicated to Montu-Ra, local
deity of Thebes
The inner part of
the temple consists of a columned courtyard, beneath which the entrance to the
king’s tomb was cut into the rock. At the level of the terrace, the hypostyle
hall contained the sanctuary of the royal cult. A statue of the king stood in
the niche carved into the rock face.
The enclosure also contained six chapels and shaft tombs below the
terraces for his wives and family members. The bodies of these queens and
princesses were mummified and buried in decorated coffins which are now in the Egyptian Museum
Mentuhotep III
Mentuhotep III
benefited from a strong and flourishing country upon the death of his father, Mentuhotep II. He used this to good advantage,
though by the time he took the throne of Egypt
Mentuhotep, which
means "The god Montu is Content" was his birth name. His throne name
was Sankh-ka-re, which means "Giving Life to the Soul of Re". We know little about his family. His father was presumably
Mentuhotep II, and his mother is believed to have been Queen Tem.
Mentuhotep III evidently continued with
many of the policies of his predecessors, which included maintaining a
defensive attitude towards his neighbors on the northern frontiers, and he was
eager to extend trade beyond the First Cataract of the Nile to the south. In the north, he built a
series of fortresses along the border of the eastern Delta, where a cult was
later dedicated to himself and the Herakleopolitan ruler, Khety III at the site of
el-Khatana.
Mentuhotep III initiated
a number of expeditions to gather raw material for his many building works,
which included a number of temples and shrines. In Year 8 of his reign, according
to a long inscription in the Wadi Hammamat, he sent an expedition of 3ooo
soldiers led by his steward, Henenu, to Punt, by way of the Red
Sea . The expedition started from Qift through Wadi-El-Hammamat to
El-Quseir (on the Red Sea ), from which they
sailed to Punt. The road they used had to be cleared of rebels prior to their
departure. Wood was carried by his soldiers in order to build ships once they
reached the Red Sea, and along their
journey, they dug twelve wells to support future expeditions. After having
built their ships, they departed for the land
of East Africa land of Punt, the first expedition to Punt during the Middle
Kingdom. They acquired a number of products while in Punt, including myrrh and
incense. Upon their return, they apparently stopped in Wadi Hammamat in order
to quarry stone.
Mentuhotep III's
building work is characterized by a certain amount of architectural innovation.
For example, at Medinet Habu he built a triple sanctuary that foreshadowed the 18th Dynasty temple built for
"family" triads of gods. He was also responsible for the temple atop Thoth Hill, the highest peak overlooking the Valley
of the Kings. It did not only have a triple sanctuary, but also incorporated
the earliest extant temple pylons. He also apparently finished much of his
father's building activities at Abydos, Elkab, Armant, Tod and Elephantine. The relief work during his reign is the best of the
Middle Kingdom. Most of the stone carving is very fine, with raised relief.
The correspondence
of Hekanakht, who was the funerary priest under the vizier Ipy at Thebes, indicates that towards the end of the king's reign,
there was apparently the end of famine in the Theban region.
Mentuhotep III was
probably buried in a bay in the cliffs to the south of his fathers monument at Deir el-Bahari. Little remains of his mortuary temple beyond a
causeway that apparently ends at a sloping passage going into the rock at Deir
el-Bahari. His mortuary temple may have been intended to be similar to that of
his fathers, but it was unfinished and uninscribed. An early Middle Kingdom
tomb was discovered below the peak of Thoth Hill on the West Bank at Luxor, which very likely belonged to this king.
His successor,
Mentuhotep IV could have usurped the throne, since he is missing from some king
lists. He may not have even been a member of the royal family.
Mentuhotep IV
Though Mentuhotep III is mentioned in both the Saqqara and Abydos king lists as being the last of the 11th Dynasty rulers, followed
immediately by Amenemhet I who founded the 12th Dynasty, the fragmentary
papyrus known as the Royal Canon of Turin says there was a period of seven
years without a king after Mentuhotep III. Egyptologists believe that it was
Nebtawyre Mentuhotep IV who fit within this short reign. Mentuhotep was the
king's birth name, meaning "The God Montu is Content". His Throne
name, Nebtawyre, means "Lord of the Two Lands is Re". Unfortunately,
no images of this king are known to us from reliefs or statuary.
Because
his name is missing from all of these kings lists, many presume that he may
have usurped the throne. His mother was a commoner with no royal titles except
for "king's mother", so it is possible that he may not even have been
a member of the royal family.
This is a shadowy
king and records regarding his reign are rare. From the reign of Amenemhet I, we find a fragment of a slate bowl discovered at
Lisht in the first nome with both the name of Nebtawyre Mentuhotep and
Amenemhet I. A vizier under Mentuhotep IV was named Amenemhet, who is well
attested from a long inscription that he left in the Wadi Hammamat, He acted as Governor of the South under Mentuhotep
IV, and most Egyptologists seem to believe that he is the later King Amenemhet.
As vizier to Mentuhotep IV, he records
that he went with an army of 10,000 (some sources say 1,000) men into the Wadi el-Hammamat
to seek and retrieve a fine block of stone suitable for the lid of the king's
sarcophagus. The text says that they were led to the block by a pregnant
gazelle which, having dropped its young on to the stone to mark it, was
immediately sacrificed on the block. A second miraculous event was also
recorded when, after a ferocious rainstorm at Wadi Hammamat, a well 10 cubits square was revealed that was full
of water to the brim. In such barren terrain, this would certainly have been a
spectacular discovery.
Apparently, the block was successfully
detached from the surrounding rock and safely taken to Thebes Red Sea .
Apparently, the port they found was Quseir, which was not established until the
reign of Amenemhet II as the embarkation point for expeditions to Punt.
Regrettably, one
of the reasons this king remains so obscure is that his tomb, and the
sarcophagus made from the block as well as his mummy, has never been found.
Perhaps Mentuhotep IV was never able to use the stone since it appears that
Amenemhet, with the backing of his 10,000 (or 1,000) men, overthrew his master
and proclaimed himself king, founding the 12th Dynasty. Thus after the
succession of these Mentuhoteps, we find that the Eleventh Dynasty was then
displaced by a new and strong Theban family with an Amenemhat at its head, who
very likely is to be identified with the powerful Amenemhet, the vizir of
Mentuhotep IV.
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