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Amenemhat I, also Amenemhet I, was the first ruler of the Twelfth Dynasty
Twelfth dynasty of Egypt

The Eleventh , Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, Middle Kingdom of Egypt....
 (the dynasty considered to be the beginning of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt
Middle Kingdom of Egypt

The middle kingdom is the period in the history of ancient Egypt stretching from the establishment of the Eleventh dynasty of Egypt to the end of the Fourteenth dynasty of Egypt, roughly between 2040 BC and 1640 BC....
). He ruled from 1991 BC to 1962 BC. Amenemhet I was not of royal lineage, and the composition of some literary works (the Prophecy of Neferti
Prophecy of Neferti

The Prophecy of Neferti is an Ancient Egyptian literary text published by Vladimir Golenishchev and stored in the Hermitage Museum. It is set in the reign of the 4th dynasty Old Kingdom king Snofru , but was actually written during the early 12th dynasty ....
, the Instructions of Amenemhat
Instructions of Amenemhat

Instructions of Amenemhat is a short ancient Egyptian poem written during the early Middle Kingdom of Egypt. The poem takes the form of an intensely dramatic monologue delivered by the ghost of the murdered 12th Dynasty pharaoh Amenemhat I to his son Senusret I....
) and, in architecture, the reversion to the pyramid
Pyramid

A pyramid is a building where the outer surfaces are triangular and converge at a point. The base of pyramids are usually quadrilateral or trilateral , meaning that a pyramid usually has four or five faces....
-style complexes of the 6th dynasty
Sixth dynasty of Egypt

The Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Dynasties of History of Egypt are often combined under the title "Old Kingdom"....
 rulers are often considered to have been attempts at legitimizing his rule.






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Amenemhat I, also Amenemhet I, was the first ruler of the Twelfth Dynasty
Twelfth dynasty of Egypt

The Eleventh , Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, Middle Kingdom of Egypt....
 (the dynasty considered to be the beginning of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt
Middle Kingdom of Egypt

The middle kingdom is the period in the history of ancient Egypt stretching from the establishment of the Eleventh dynasty of Egypt to the end of the Fourteenth dynasty of Egypt, roughly between 2040 BC and 1640 BC....
). He ruled from 1991 BC to 1962 BC. Amenemhet I was not of royal lineage, and the composition of some literary works (the Prophecy of Neferti
Prophecy of Neferti

The Prophecy of Neferti is an Ancient Egyptian literary text published by Vladimir Golenishchev and stored in the Hermitage Museum. It is set in the reign of the 4th dynasty Old Kingdom king Snofru , but was actually written during the early 12th dynasty ....
, the Instructions of Amenemhat
Instructions of Amenemhat

Instructions of Amenemhat is a short ancient Egyptian poem written during the early Middle Kingdom of Egypt. The poem takes the form of an intensely dramatic monologue delivered by the ghost of the murdered 12th Dynasty pharaoh Amenemhat I to his son Senusret I....
) and, in architecture, the reversion to the pyramid
Pyramid

A pyramid is a building where the outer surfaces are triangular and converge at a point. The base of pyramids are usually quadrilateral or trilateral , meaning that a pyramid usually has four or five faces....
-style complexes of the 6th dynasty
Sixth dynasty of Egypt

The Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Dynasties of History of Egypt are often combined under the title "Old Kingdom"....
 rulers are often considered to have been attempts at legitimizing his rule. Amenemhat I moved the capital from Thebes
Thebes, Egypt

Thebes was a city in Ancient Egypt located about 800 km south of the Mediterranean, on the east bank of the river Nile . It was the capital of Waset, the fourth Upper Egyptian Nome ....
 to Itjtawy
Itjtawy

Itjtawy , is the as-yet unidentified location of the royal city founded by Twelfth dynasty of Egypt Egyptians King Amenemhat I during year 20 of his reign....
 and was buried in el-Lisht
El-Lisht

Lisht or el-Lisht is an Egyptian village located south of Cairo. It is the site of Middle Kingdom of Egypt royal and elite burials, including two pyramids built by Amenemhat I and Senusret I....
.

His son Senusret I
Senusret I

Senusret I was the second pharaoh of the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt of Ancient Egypt. He ruled from 1971 BC to 1926 BC, and was one of the most powerful kings of this Dynasty....
 followed in his footsteps, building his pyramid–a closer reflection of the 6th dynasty pyramids than that of Amenemhat I–at Lisht as well, but his grandson, Amenemhat II, broke with this tradition.

Assassination

Two literary works dating from the end of the reign give a picture about Amenemhat I's death. The Instructions of Amenemhat
Instructions of Amenemhat

Instructions of Amenemhat is a short ancient Egyptian poem written during the early Middle Kingdom of Egypt. The poem takes the form of an intensely dramatic monologue delivered by the ghost of the murdered 12th Dynasty pharaoh Amenemhat I to his son Senusret I....
 were supposedly counsels that the deceased king gave to his son during a dream. In the passage where he warns Senusret I against too great intimacy with his subjects, he tells the story of his own death as a reinforcement:

This passage refers to a conspiracy in which Amenemhat was killed by his own guards, when his son and co-regent Senusret I was leading a campaign in Libya. Another account of the following events is given in the Story of Sinuhe
Story of Sinuhe

The Tale of Sinuhe is a work of Ancient Egyptian literature. It is a narrative set in the aftermath of the death of Pharaoh Amenemhat I, founder of the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt of Egypt, in the early 20th century BC....
, a famous text of Egyptian literature:

Succession

Amenemhat I is considered to be the first king of Egypt to have had a coregency with his son, Senusret I. A double dated stela is dated to the thirtieth year of Amenemhat I and to the tenth year of Senusret I, which establishes that Senusret was made co-regent in Amenemhat's 20th regnal year.

Name

Amenemhat I's name is associated with one of only two sebayt
Sebayt

Sebayt is the ancient Egyptian term for a genre of Ancient Egyptian literature. The word literally means 'teachings' or 'instructions' and refers to formally written ethical teachings focused on the "way of living truly"....
 or ethical "teachings" attributed to Egyptian monarchs, entitled the Instructions of Amenemhat
Instructions of Amenemhat

Instructions of Amenemhat is a short ancient Egyptian poem written during the early Middle Kingdom of Egypt. The poem takes the form of an intensely dramatic monologue delivered by the ghost of the murdered 12th Dynasty pharaoh Amenemhat I to his son Senusret I....
, though it is generally thought today that it was composed by a scribe at the behest of the king.

Amenemhat I's Horus name, Wehemmesu, which means renaissance or rebirth, is an allusion to the Old Kingdom
Old Kingdom

The Old Kingdom is the name commonly given to that period in the 3rd millennium BCE when Ancient Egypt attained its first continuous peak of civilization in complexity and achievement ? this was the first of three so-called "Kingdom" periods, which mark the high points of civilization in the lower Nile Valley ....
 period, whose cultural icons and models (such as pyramidal tombs and Old Kingdom artistic motifs) where emulated by the Twelfth Dynasty kings after the end of the First Intermediate Period. The cult of the king was also promoted during this period, which witnessed a steady return to a more centralized government.

The royal court

Vizir at the beginning of the regin was Ipi, at the end of the reign Intefiqer
Intefiqer

The Ancient Egyptian noble Intefiqer was overseer of the city and Vizier under Amenemhet I and Senusret I during the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt....
 was in charge. Two treasurers
Treasurer (Ancient Egypt)

The Treasurer in Ancient Egypt is the modern translation of the title imy-r xtmt . The office is known since the end of the Old Kingdom, where people with this title appear sporadically in the organisation of private estates....
 can be placed under this king: another Ipi and Rehuerdjersen
Rehuerdjersen

Rehuerdjersen was an Ancient Egyptian treasurer in office under Amenemhet I. Rehuerdjersen is mainly known from his tomb at el-Lisht, close to the pyramid of Amenemhet I....
. There are again two high stewards: Meketre
Meketre

The Ancient Egyptian noble Meketre was Treasurer and chief steward during the reign of Mentuhotep II and Mentuhotep III, during the Middle Kingdom of Egypt....
 and Sobeknakht.

Modern adaptation

Naguib Mahfouz
Naguib Mahfouz

Naguib Mahfouz was an Egyptians novelist who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. He is regarded as one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature, along with Tawfiq el-Hakim, to explore themes of existentialism....
, the Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian writer, includes Amenemhat I in one of his stories published in 1941 entitled "Awdat Sinuhi". The story appeared in an English translation by Raymond Stock in 2003 as "The Return of Sinuhe" in the collection of Mahfouz's short stories entitled Voices from the Other World. The story is based directly on the "Story of Sinuhe
Story of Sinuhe

The Tale of Sinuhe is a work of Ancient Egyptian literature. It is a narrative set in the aftermath of the death of Pharaoh Amenemhat I, founder of the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt of Egypt, in the early 20th century BC....
", although adding details of a lovers' triangle romance involving Amenemhat I and Sinuhe that does not appear in the original. Mahfouz also includes the pharaoh in his account of Egypt's rulers "Facing the Throne". In this work, the Nobel laureate has the Ancient Egyptian gods judge the country's rulers from Pharaoh Mena to President Anwar Sadat
Anwar Sadat

Muhammad Anwar Al Sadat, or Anwar El Sadat , was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination on 6 October 1981....
.

Further reading

  • W. Grajetzki, The Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt: History,Archaeology and Society, Duckworth, London 2006 ISBN 0-7156-3435-6, 28-35
  • Mahfouz, Naguib. The Return of Sinuhe in Voices from the Other World (translated by Robert Stock), Random House, 2003.


See also


  • List of Egyptian pyramids
    List of Egyptian pyramids

    Over the course of 3,500 years there were 118 Egyptian pyramids constructed by the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. This list presents the vital statistics of the pyramids listed in chronological order, when available....
  • List of megalithic sites
    List of megalithic sites

    This is a list of ancient sites that moved megalithic stones, organized according to the size of the largest megalith on the site. A megalith is a large stone which has been used to construct a structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones....