The Pyramid of Hawara - Faiyum

The Hawara pyramid is the tomb of the ancient Egyptian king Amenemhet III. from the 12th dynasty in the Middle Kingdom. It forms the center of the Hawara necropolis, near the modern town of Hauwaret el-Maqta. Its construction began in the 15th year of the king's reign after his original grave monument in Dahshur had to be abandoned due to serious structural defects. With a side length of 105 meters and an incline of 48 ° 45 ', the Hawara pyramid had a height of 58 meters. It was the last major structure of its kind to be completed. The current height of the ruin is about 20 m.
 

The first documentation of the pyramid was carried out by John Shae Perring in 1839. The publication took place in 1842 by himself and by Richard William Howard Vyse. Karl Richard Lepsius visited Hawara during his Egypt expedition 1842–1846 and documented the ruins there between May and July 1843. He added the Hawara pyramid to his list of pyramids. He identified the remains of the labyrinth and arranged the complex Amenemhet III. His attempts to get inside the pyramid were unsuccessful. Luigi Vassalli did not succeed in this when he tried again in 1862.

From 1888 the English archaeologist Flinders Petrie carried out extensive excavations in Hawara. While the first excavation season was for the surrounding cemeteries. In 1889 he examined the pyramid and penetrated into the chamber system. After turning to other sites in the meantime, Petrie returned to Hawara in 1911 and carried out excavations in the area of ​​the labyrinth, which, however, did not clarify its original appearance due to the severe degree of destruction provided. In later times there were some Egyptian excavations

A distinctive feature of the 12th Dynasty pyramids is the use of different names for different parts of the pyramid complex. While the facilities of the Old Kingdom only had one name for the entire royal tomb complex, the facilities of the 12th Dynasty had up to four names, which denoted the actual pyramid, the mortuary temple, the cult facilities of the district and the pyramid city. For the Amenemhet III pyramid, only the name Ankh-Imen-em-hat (“Amenemhet lives”) has been handed down, which probably referred to the mortuary temple and the cult complex. The names of the actual pyramid and the pyramid city are unknown.

The pyramid

In his 15th year of reign, King Amenemhet III began. with the construction of his second pyramid, which was probably named Amenemhet Ankh (Amenemhet lives). With this construction he returned to the entrance of the Fayyum Basin, near the Senusret II pyramid. The reasons for the construction of his second pyramid were construction defects in his first pyramid in Dahshur.

The superstructure

This building was also built entirely from adobe, but with a flatter slope angle. As usual, the outer jacket was made of limestone. The original limestone cladding has been missing since ancient times, and the pyramid core is increasingly suffering from erosion.