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Amenemhat
III Builder of the Black
Pyramid
Amenemhat III (ca. 1860 BC-1797 BC) was a pharaoh
of Egypt. He ruled from 1842 BC to 1797 BC, and is regarded as being
the greatest monarch of the Middle Kingdom.
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| Portrait
by
Winifred Brunton |
His mortuary temple at Hawara (near the Fayum), is
accompanied by a pyramid and was known to Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus
as the "Labyrinth." The king also constructed a pyramid at Dahshur (the
so-called "Black Pyramid") but this was abandoned.
The king's pyramid at Hawara contained some of the most complex security
features of any found in Egypt and is perhaps the only one to come close
to the sort of tricks Hollywood associates with such structures. Nevertheless,
the king's burial, alongside his daughter Neferu-Ptah, was robbed in antiquity.
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