Pink granite naos from the funerary temple at Hawara, Egypt (near the entrance to the Faiyum) of the 12th Dynasty pharaoh Nimaatre Amenemhat III (r. ca. 1831-1786 BCE). The deceased, deified Amenemhat is shown on the left, holding the ankh-symbol of life and extending it across his body toward a figure presumed to be his son and successor Maakherure Amenemhat IV (r. ca. 1786-1777 BCE).
Amenemhat III enjoyed a long and generally prosperous reign that included many building works, intensive mining activity, and maintenance of the elaborate Middle Kingdom irrigation system in the Faiyum -- indeed, he was later worshiped in that region as a deity, Lamares. However, some Egyptologists believe that Amenemhat's reign sowed the seeds of decline for the Middle Kingdom through overextraction of mineral resources. It was also during his reign that the people known as the Hyksos, originating in western Asia, became a significant presence in the Nile Delta; during the Second Intermediate Period after the Middle Kingdom's collapse, the Hyksos would produce their own line of rulers in Lower Egypt.
Despite the optimistic imagery of succession in this sculpture, Amenemhat IV's own reign was comparatively brief. He was succeeded by the last pharaoh of the 12th Dynasty, his sister-wife Sobekneferu, one of the few women in ancient Egypt to have ruled in her own right.
Now in the Grand Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Photo credit: Juan R. Lázaro | Wikimedia Commons | Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic
