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The 12th and 13th Dynasties: the Middle Kingdom in hieroglyphs

17 October 2026

The 12th Dynasty ruled Egypt from about 1985 to 1773 BC and is the heart of the Middle Kingdom. Its kings alternated two names, Amenemhat and Senusret, from the founder Amenemhat I to Amenemhat IV, and the line ended with a woman, Sobekneferu, who ruled as king.

The 13th Dynasty followed with dozens of kings in about 125 years, many of them reigning only a year or two. At the same time a separate line, counted as the 14th Dynasty, held part of the eastern Delta. Both ended around 1650 BC, when the Hyksos took the north.

Amenemhat I moved the capital north

Amenemhat I had probably been a vizier before he became king. He moved the royal residence from Thebes to a new city, Amenemhat-itj-tawy, "Amenemhat seizes the Two Lands", shortened to Itjtawy. Its ruins have never been found. It lay somewhere near the royal pyramids at el-Lisht, south of Memphis. The rulers took these throne names at their coronation:

Amenemhat I: Sehetepibre
Senusret I: Kheperkare
Amenemhat II: Nubkaure
Senusret II: Khakheperre
Senusret III: Khakaure
Amenemhat III: Nimaatre
Amenemhat IV: Maakherure
Sobekneferu: Sobekkare

Both birth names honour Theban gods

The founder's birth name is imn-m-ḥꜣt, said Amenemhat, "Amun is at the front". The flowering reed (M17), the game board (Y5) and the ripple of water (N35) spell imn, Amun, the god of Thebes. The owl (G17) is m, "in" or "at". The forepart of a lion (F4) with the bread loaf (X1) writes ḥꜣt, "front": the front of an animal for the front of anything.

Senusret, s-n-wsrt, means "man of Wosret", a Theban goddess. Greek writers turned it into Sesostris, and older books still use that form. The two names alternate down the dynasty, so the number after a name is the only way to tell four Amenemhats and three Senusrets apart.

Flowering reed Game board Ripple of water Owl Forepart of a lion Bread loaf

Write Amenemhat's cartouche

Khakaure takes five signs

Senusret III's throne name is ḫꜥ-kꜣw-rꜥ, said Khakaure, "the kas of Ra appear". It takes five signs in the cartouche. The sun disc (N5) writes Ra and stands first out of respect for the god, though it is read last.

The sun rising over a hill (N28) writes ḫꜥ, "to appear", the word used for the sun at dawn and for a king on his throne. Then come three pairs of raised arms (D28). One pair writes kꜣ, the ka, a person's life force. Three of them make the plural, kꜣw.

Compare Senusret I's Kheperkare, ḫpr-kꜣ-rꜥ: the same sun, one ka, and the scarab (L1) for ḫpr, "to come into being". Most 12th Dynasty throne names are built this way, with Ra and one or two words, so the middle signs tell the kings apart.

Sun Sun rising over a hill Raised arms Scarab beetle

Write Senusret III's cartouche

Senusret I's White Chapel stands again at Karnak

At Karnak, the White Chapel of Senusret I stands rebuilt in the Open Air Museum. In the New Kingdom it was taken apart and used as fill inside the Third Pylon of Amenhotep III. Its blocks were found in 1927 and reassembled. Its limestone carving is among the finest Middle Kingdom work, and a list of Egypt's provinces runs along the base.

At Dahshur, Senusret III and Amenemhat III built pyramids of mud brick cased with stone. Jewellery of royal women found beside them carries their cartouches. Senusret III also campaigned in Nubia, building a chain of forts at the Second Cataract, and a boundary stela from Semna, now in Berlin, warns that any son who fails to hold the border "is not my son".

The 13th Dynasty crowded fifty kings into 125 years

The Turin king list, a papyrus of royal names written about five centuries later, once held around fifty names for the 13th Dynasty, many now lost in its broken fragments. Several kings were called Sobekhotep, sbk-ḥtp, "Sobek is content", after the crocodile god. Its ḥtp is the bread on an offering mat (R4), the same word as in the offering formula.

The best-known image of a ka comes from the 13th Dynasty. King Hor, throne name Awibre, was buried at Dahshur beside the pyramid of Amenemhat III. In 1894 Jacques de Morgan found in his tomb a life-size wooden ka statue, with the raised arms of the ka sign fixed on its head. It is in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

The 14th Dynasty is shadowy. Its kings ruled from the eastern Delta, probably from Avaris, and many had foreign names. The best attested, Nehesy, has a name meaning "the Nubian". Most of the others are known only from scarabs, and their order is disputed.

Bread on an offering mat

Middle Kingdom reigns overlap

Reigns overlap. Senusret I seems to have ruled beside his father for about ten years, so the dates in a list can add up to more than the dynasty's length.

Throne names repeat their parts. Khakaure, Khakheperre and Kheperkare share signs, so a reader has to read every sign in the ring to tell them apart.

Even the period is debated. Some historians end the Middle Kingdom with the 12th Dynasty and put the 13th in the Second Intermediate Period. The site's timeline keeps the 13th and 14th in the Middle Kingdom.

Open the 12th Dynasty on the timeline

Questions

Who founded the 12th dynasty of Egypt?

Amenemhat I, a vizier of the last 11th Dynasty king, Mentuhotep IV, if the usual identification is right. A Middle Kingdom text, the Instruction of Amenemhat, has the old king describe a plot against his life.

Who was the last ruler of the 12th dynasty?

Sobekneferu, probably a daughter of Amenemhat III, who ruled as king for about four years. She is the first woman whose reign as king is well attested by monuments of her own.

Why is the 12th dynasty famous for literature?

Its scribes wrote the classics of Middle Egyptian, the form of the language learners still start with: the Story of Sinuhe, the Eloquent Peasant and wisdom texts. Later schools copied them for centuries.

How many kings ruled in the 13th dynasty?

About fifty, going by the Turin king list, though the number is uncertain because the papyrus is broken. Only a few, such as Neferhotep I and Sobekhotep IV, reigned long enough to leave many monuments.

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.
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.
New Kingdom: Egypt's age of empire, about 1550 to 1069 BC, the time of Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II.
papyrus: A writing sheet made from strips of the papyrus reed laid in two crossing layers and pressed. Sheets were glued into long rolls.
pylon: The huge gateway of a temple: two sloping towers with a door between them, carved with scenes of the king.
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.
scarab: The dung beetle, sign of the rising sun and of the word ḫpr, "to come into being". Carved scarabs were used as seals and amulets.
stela: An upright stone slab carved with words and pictures, set up in tombs and temples or to mark a border.
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.
vizier: The king's chief minister, who ran the government, the courts and the treasury for him.