In the fourteenth year of his reign Mentuhotep launched an attack against Herakleopolis. Merykara, the last Heracleopolitan ruler, died before Mentuhotep reached the city. Pacification of the rest of the country may have taken many more years. Forays were made into Nubia and a garrison was established in the fortress at Elephantine. Mentuhotep ruled from Thebes. He led expeditions to the west against the Libyans and into Sinai against the nomads. Mentuhotep III (r.c.2004-c.1992 BC) built fortresses along the eastern edge of the Delta to prevent the incursions of ‘Asiatics’. Mentuhotep IV (r.c.1992-c.1985 BC) was served by a vizier named Amenemhat who may have been the same man that succeeded (usurped?) Mentuhotep and founded the twelfth dynasty, Amenemhat-I (r.c.1985-c.1956 BC).
Amenemhat moved north to the new capital of Amenemhat-itj-tawy (‘Amenemhat the seizer of the two lands’), sometimes known simply as Itjtawy, near El-Lisht. This provided a more central control of Egypt and placed him nearer to problem areas in the Delta. One of Amenemhat’s earliest campaigns was against the Asiatics. He drove these people back and built the ‘Walls-of-the-Ruler’, a series of fortifications along Egypt’s northeast frontier. In Nubia he pushed his army southward to Elephantine, where he consolidated his rule, and in his twenty-ninth year his army apparently drove further south to the second cataract.
Senusret-I (r.c.1956-c.1911 BC) continued his father’s work. He conquered lower Nubia and established Egypt’s formal southern border at the fortress of Buhen near the second cataract. He consolidated his control over the oases in the Libyan desert and extended his commercial links with Syria/Palestine as far north as Ugarit. Amenemhat II (r.c.1911-c.1877 BC) appears to have continued the foreign policy of his predecessors. There is evidence of trade with the Levant, Mesopotamia and even Crete. Not all contacts with the Levant were peaceful, however, because Egypt apparently had treaties only with certain countries in the region. Herodotus (c.484-c.425 BC) speaks of Asiatic wars around this time. Sunusret II (r.c.1877-c.1870 BC) seems to have directed his efforts at expanding cultivation within the Faiyum.
Taking advantage of the lack of military activity, some Nubian groups had moved north past the third cataract. In his regnal years 6, 8, 10 and 16 Sunusret III (r.c.1870-c.1831 BC) campaigned in Nubia, and these wars appear to have been brutal. At what appears to have been the southern border, the fortresses of Semna and Uronarti were reinforced. He undertook at least one campaign into Palestine against the Aamu (=Asiatics). An insight into Egypt’s foreign adversaries is found in groups of surviving texts that record curses on the enemies of Egypt, hence their name – the Execration Texts.
Amenemhat III (r.c.1831-c.1786 BC) strengthened the frontier at Semna, constructed the temple at Quban in Nubia and dedicated himself to the development of the Faiyum. During his reign, numerous eastern workers came into Egypt to exploit the growth in mining and quarrying. The extensive building works, together with possibly a series of low Nile floods may, however, have exhausted the economy by the end of Amenemhat’s reign.
As with the Old Kingdom, similarly the long reigns of Senruset III and Amenemhat III led to succession problems. With no male heir the nine-year reign of Amenemhat IV (r.c.1786-c.1777 BC) was followed by the four-year reign of Queen Sobekneferu (r.c.1777-c.1773 BC).
After peaking during the reign of Amenemhat III the influx of workers from the east became a steady migration and settlement in the Delta. By the end of the twelfth dynasty these immigrants had begun to unite and gain control of the territories around them. It is possible that the fourteenth dynasty (c.1773-c.1650 BC) consisted of a number of smaller provinces with independent rulers ruling concurrently over different parts of the Delta. According to Manetho, however, the fourteenth dynasty was ruled from Xois in the western Delta, but the city of Avaris (=Tell el-Daba in the eastern Delta?) must have been important. The thirteenth dynasty (c.1773-after c.1650 BC) was a continuation of the twelfth dynasty, but with its control confined to the Nile Valley having lost control of the Delta. During the thirteenth dynasty more than fifty kings occupied the throne and although the names of many of these rulers are known, the order of succession remains unclear. There were probably rival claimants to the throne but in principle the royal residence remained at Itjtawy.
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