PYRAMID OF AMENEMHAT III (Hawara) Hawara is located at the entrance of the Fayyum oasis, along the Bahr Yousef, about 60 miles south of the Giza Plateau. It is here that Amenemhat III decided to build its second pyramid. The first, the Black Pyramid of Dashur, showed structural failure already when under construction and this forced Amenemhat to look elsewhere for a more suitable place for his funerary complex. Therefore, he chose Hawara, not far from the pyramid of his grandfather Sesostri II, at El-Lahun. The pyramid was built in mud brick around a core of solid limestone. The casing, in fine limestone, was removed in Roman times. The absence of such a coating has brought up the present aspect of the pyramid that looks like a pile of bricks from the vaguely pyramidal form. At the time of its construction, the pyramid had a side base of about 345 feet, a height of about 190 feet and an inclination of about 48 degrees. Given the failure in the construction of the Black Pyramid of Dashur, that had an inclination of 57 degrees, Amenemhat prudently decided to reduce the inclination of his second pyramid of about 9 degrees. The entrance of the pyramid is in its south side near the corner of the southwest. A descending corridor, lined with limestone, leads to a first chamber where it exits to the north and has no issue. A passage, made in the ceiling of the first chamber, bends toward east, turns toward north and then west to finally access into a room; this room is lined with limestone blocks and it was carved into the rock that had to house the burial chamber. The latter was obtained in a single block of hard quartzite and had a length of 23 feet, a width of 8 feet and a height of 6 feet. Its weight is estimated at more than 100 tons. Three blocks, also in quartzite, seal the burial chamber. Inside this monolith the sarcophagus and the canopic jars of Amenemhat were placed. To decrease the weight of the pyramid upon this structure, a gabled roof, with three limestone slabs weighing about 15 tons each, was built. Remains of two wooden sarcophagi were found; one belonging presumably to Amenemhat and a second, found in the antechamber, belonging to the princess Neferu-Ptah, his daughter. In later times, another tomb belonging to Neferu-Ptah was found; to date this sarcophagus raises the question on the place where the princess was actually buried, although the second option seems more likely. The Funerary Temple was located to the south of the pyramid, the largest temple built during the Middle Kingdom, with an area of about 28,000 sqm. Its remains are so small and deteriorated that it is impossible to draw a plan and give us an idea of the splendor that apparently this building had. Ancient Greek and Roman travelers, Herodotus, Strabo, etc... all called this structure Labyrinth and told us of courtyards, chambers, chapels, crypts. The whole complex was surrounded by a rectangular enclosure wall. To the southeast of this wall, the causeway started and it ended in the Valley Temple. Both these structures have not yet been studied. For further informations visit my website: my-egypt.it/middle-egypt/hawara/
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 09:39:21 +0000
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