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Amenemhat III in hieroglyphs: Nimaatre, two pyramids and the Labyrinth
25 October 2026
Amenemhat III's throne name is nj-mꜣꜥt-rꜥ, Nimaatre, "belonging to the justice of Ra": the sun disc, the seated goddess Maat and a water ripple. His birth name, imn-m-ḥꜣt, Amenemhat, means "Amun is at the front".
He was the son of Senusret III and ruled the 12th Dynasty for at least 45 years, around 1830 to 1786 BC, the high point of the Middle Kingdom. He built two pyramids. The first, at Dahshur, cracked and was abandoned. Its black stone capstone, carved with his names, is in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
The goddess Maat sits in Nimaatre
The sun disc (N5) is Ra, placed first in honour of the god. The seated goddess with a feather on her head (C10) is Maat, truth, justice and the right order of the world. The water ripple (N35) writes n, here nj, "belonging to". Read in order: nj-mꜣꜥt-rꜥ, "one who belongs to the Maat of Ra".
Maat was the duty of every king, and many throne names use her: Ramesses II's Usermaatre and Amenhotep III's Nebmaatre among them. In Nimaatre she sits alone between the sun and the water sign, easy to spot in a cartouche.
Amenemhat puts Amun at the front
The birth name begins with Amun, spelled by the reed leaf (M17), the game board (Y5) and the water ripple (N35). The owl (G17) is m, "in" or "at". The front of a lion (F4) is ḥꜣt, "the front", with the loaf (X1) as its ending. Together: imn-m-ḥꜣt, "Amun is at the front".
The founder of the dynasty, Amenemhat I, bore the same name, and four kings of the family in all. The name puts the god of Thebes, the family's home city, at the head of the king.
The Black Pyramid sank into the clay
Amenemhat began his pyramid at Dahshur, near his father's. It was built of mud brick cased in limestone, on soft clay close to the Nile. By about his 15th year, groundwater had cracked the rooms underneath, and the builders propped them with beams and brick. The king gave up on it as a tomb, though some of his queens were buried there. Stripped of its casing, the mud-brick core now stands as a dark mound, the Black Pyramid.
Its capstone survived: a pointed block of dark grey granite, polished and carved on all four sides. A pair of eyes looks out over the king's cartouches, with gods and the sun disc. On it, the name of Amun was chiselled out, probably in Akhenaten's reign, when his agents erased the god's name across Egypt.
Hawara held his tomb and the Labyrinth
His second pyramid, at Hawara at the entrance to the Faiyum, became his tomb. Beside it stood a huge funerary temple, a maze of courts and halls. Greek visitors called it the Labyrinth, and Herodotus, in the fifth century BC, said it outdid even the pyramids. Almost nothing is left of it above the ground.
Amenemhat worked hard on the Faiyum, the lake basin west of the Nile. At Biahmu he raised two colossal seated statues of himself on high bases by the water. He built a temple to the crocodile god Sobek and a chapel at Medinet Madi. Long after his death the people of the Faiyum worshipped him, and Greek writers knew him as Lamares.
About 80 statues show his face
Amenemhat's sculptors kept some of the heavy, lined look of his father's statues and also carved him young and smooth-faced. Around 80 statues are attributed to him, more than to most kings of the Middle Kingdom. Some were taken over centuries later by other kings, who added their own names.
His reign was mostly peaceful. Expeditions mined turquoise and copper in Sinai, where many inscriptions carry his cartouche. He was followed by Amenemhat IV and then by Sobekneferu, one of the few women to rule Egypt as king. His mummy has never been found.
Questions
Why did Amenemhat III build two pyramids?
His first pyramid, at Dahshur, was built on soft clay, and its chambers cracked. He started a second at Hawara, which became his tomb.
Where is the Black Pyramid's capstone?
In the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square in Cairo. It is dark granite, carved on all four sides with the king's names and a pair of eyes.
What was the Labyrinth?
The Greek name for Amenemhat III's huge funerary temple at Hawara, by his pyramid. Herodotus described it as a building of thousands of rooms. Only traces remain.
Glossary
- birth name
- The name a king was given at birth, written in the second cartouche after the title "son of Ra". Egyptologists also call it the nomen.
- cartouche
- An oval ring drawn around a royal name, a loop of rope tied at one end. Kings wrote their two main names in cartouches.
- dynasty
- A line of kings counted together, usually one family. Egyptologists number Egypt's kings in about 30 dynasties, following the priest Manetho.
- Maat
- Truth, justice and the right order of the world, shown as a goddess with an ostrich feather on her head. Kings claimed to uphold it.
- Middle Kingdom
- The age when Egypt was united again, about 2055 to 1650 BC. Its texts became the classic form of the language that later scribes copied.
- mummy
- A body dried and wrapped in linen so that it would last. Egyptians believed the spirit needed it in the afterlife.
- pyramid
- A royal tomb with four sloping sides meeting at a point, built in the Old and Middle Kingdoms. Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza is the largest.
- temple
- The house of a god, where priests served the god's statue. Temples for dead kings kept up their offerings after death.
- throne name
- The name a king took when he came to the throne, written in the first cartouche after the title "King of Upper and Lower Egypt". Egyptologists also call it the prenomen.
- tomb
- A burial place: a pit, a mastaba, a pyramid or rooms cut into rock. Its chapel was where the family brought offerings.
People in this article
Where to see it
- Dahshur site
- Egyptian Museum, Cairo museum
Sources
More to read
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