Pyramid of Hawara

The pyramid of Hawara is the second pyramid that Amenemhat {{III}} was made build, preferring it, to be made bury, with the first pyramid located at Dahchour.

It was explored for the first time by William Petrie in 1888 and 1889. The Egyptologist thus could identify the funerary temple of the complex as being celebrates it Labyrinthe, monument describes with enthusiasm by many famous travellers of antiquity like Strabon and Hérodote. The funerary unit can be regarded as the architectural masterpiece of the Moyen Empire.

Structure

The funerary complex

The pyramid and the funerary temple were located in vast a Enceinte at steps common to the royal funerary whole of the Moyen Empire. The latter measured 385 meters out of approximately 158 meters. A roadway connected the funerary temple to the temple of the valley disappeared today. A small funerary vault was coupled with the northern face of the pyramid.

The pyramid

The pyramid was to have in the beginning a base of 105 meters and a 58 meters height. The body was composed of bricks covered with a limestone facing.

The entry was located on the face southern and dissimulated under the facing of the pyramid.

The plan of its infrastructure is simpler than with the pyramid of Dahchour but the means implemented to make the pyramid inviolable are much more elaborate. For the first time since the reign of Snéfrou (Pyramid rhomboïdale) the architects used, by improving it, the system of closing with harrow on tilted level. Three harrows were initially to block the accesses but only one (the first starting from the entry) fulfilled its function, the two other harrows having remained in their position of waiting.

The funerary room is a wonder of design. The vault is a tank cut in a large block of quarzite weighing nearly 110 tons. The ceiling of the vault consists of three flagstones of quarzite of which one remained suspended in order to be able to introduce the body of Pharaon and the Ptahnéférou princess. The flagstone suspends some weighs nearly 45 tons and was supported by two stays juqu' with the funeral. Two side accesses to the vault made it possible to seal the tomb. Kneaded had not included/understood any operation and emitted the assumption that these accesses constituted leures in order to mislay possible plunderers. This system is found in several posterior pyramids with the reign of Amenemhat: the southern Pyramid of Mazghouna, the Pyramid of Khendjer and the unfinished Pyramid of southern Saqqarah, these two last located at Saqqarah.

Two sarcophagi of quarzite as well as a case with canopes are located in the vault, the first sarcophagus was intended to the Pharaon, the smaller second, with the Ptahnéférou princess.

In order to protect it from the mass of the pyramid, the vault was covered by imposing vaults out of rafters (in A) according to the model of the pyramid of Amenemhat {{II}} with Dahchour. The blocks composing the roof of this vault weigh 50 tons.

Today the underground apartments are completely flooded by water coming from a ground water.

The labyrinth

The funerary temple was many times quoted and described with admiration by the Greek travellers of antiquity. Its fame was such as the scholars, until the 18th century, never failed to quote it and indicate it on their charts. It if is however dilapidated that one can trust only with old descriptions of his famous visitors.

Hérodote counted twelve courses principal surrounded by galleries and rooms. Strabon counted as many rooms as there was name in Egypt. These rooms were gathered by three or six, each group preceding a court. These rooms and these courses were juxtaposed in the East-West direction and followed one another of north the south in three lines, each line being preceded by a court. The unit was surrounded by a déambulatoire. Kneaded drew up of it a plan undoubtedly more inspired by the writings of the historians than by the elements, very rare, found on the ground.

Some sights of the pyramid and the vestiges of the labyrinth

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