Hawara Pyramid

Amenemhat III built Hawara in the nineteenth century BC out of mud brick with a limestone casing, and the casing is long gone, so what stands is a slumped brown mound that reads more like a hill than a pyramid. The interest is underground. The burial chamber was cut from a single block of quartzite weighing something like a hundred tonnes, sealed by lowering a slab from above, and the passages leading to it were built as a series of dead ends, trapdoors and blind shafts intended to defeat robbers; they did not, but the design is remarkable. Beside the pyramid stood the building Herodotus called the Labyrinth and rated above the pyramids themselves, a mortuary temple of many courts and chambers, now reduced to a field of chips and foundations.

History

Amenemhat III, the last powerful king of the 12th Dynasty, built the pyramid at Hawara between the 19th and 18th centuries BC, probably after his "Black Pyramid" at Dahshur, and it is thought to have been his final resting place; the intact pyramid tomb of his daughter Neferuptah was found about 2 km to the south. Like the other later Middle Kingdom pyramids it was built of mud brick around a core of limestone passages and chambers and faced with limestone, most of which was later taken for other buildings. The huge mortuary temple beside it is thought to be the building of galleries and courts that Herodotus called the Labyrinth, also described by Strabo and Diodorus Siculus, and its demolition may date partly from the reign of Ptolemy II, when its stone may have gone to his building programme at the renamed city of Arsinoë. The female pharaoh Sobekneferu also built at the complex (Wikipedia, Hawara).

Highlights

• The mud-brick mound - a pyramid with its casing entirely stripped.
• The quartzite burial chamber - carved from one block of about a hundred tonnes.
• The site of the Labyrinth - the foundation field of the temple Herodotus praised.
• Dead-end passages - the anti-robbery design still traceable underground.

When to go

October to April. One to two hours. The interior is often flooded by groundwater and closed, so ask locally before travelling. Mornings are cooler for the walk over the temple field.

Before you go

The pyramid itself is unimpressive to look at and the Labyrinth is essentially gone, which disappoints visitors who come on the strength of Herodotus. The burial chamber is frequently inaccessible because of the water table. There are no facilities and little signage.

Nearby

The Lahun pyramid is a short drive south-east; Faiyum city is north-west.

Key facts