ments, and the damming of the Lake of Moeris (q.v.) must
have been in progress in his reign. He built a temple far up the Nile at
Wadi Halfa and there set up a stela commemorating his victories over the
tribes of Nubia. The fine tombs of Ameni at Beni Hasan and of Hepzefa at
Assiut belong to his reign. The pyramids of both father and son are at
Lisht.

Amenemhe II. was buried at Dahshur; he was followed by Senwosri II.,
whose pyramid is at Illahun at the mouth of the Fayum. In his reign were
executed the fine paintings in the tomb of Khnemhotp at Beni Hasan,
which include a remarkable scene of Semitic Bedouins bringing eye-paint
to Egypt from the eastern deserts. In Manetho he is identified with
Sesostris (see above), but Senwosri I., and still more Senwosri III.,
have a better claim to this distinction. The latter warred in Palestine
and in Nubia, and marked the south frontier of his kingdom by a statue
and stelae at Semna beyond the Second Cataract. Near his pyramid was
discovered the splendid jewelry of some princesses of his family (see
JEWELRY ad init.). The tomb of Thethotp at El Bersha, celebrated for the
scene of the transport of a colossus amongst its paintings, was finished
in this reign.

Amenemhe III. completed the work of Lake Moeris and began a series of
observations of the height of the inundation at Semna which was
continued by his successors. In his long reign of forty-six years he
built a pyramid at Dahshur, and at Hawara near the Lake of Moeris
another pyramid together with the Labyrinth which seems to have been an
enormous funerary temple attached to the pyramid. His name was
remembered in the Fayum during the Graeco-Roman period and his effigy
worshipped there as Pera-marres, i.e. Pharaoh Marres (Marres being his
praenomen graecized). Amenemhe IV.'s reign was short, and the dynasty
ended with a queen Sebeknefru (Scemiophris), whose name is found in the
scanty remains of the Labyrinth. The XIIth Dynasty numbered eight rulers
and lasted for 213 years. Great as it was, it created no empire outside
the Nile valley, and its most imposing monument, which according to the
testimony of the ancients rivalled the pyramids, is now represented by a
vast stratum of chips.

The history of the following period down to the rise of the New Empire
is very obscure. Manetho gives us the XIIIth (Diospolite) Dynasty, the
XIVth (Xoite from Xois in Lower Egypt), the XVth and XVIth (Hyksos) and
the XVIIth (Diospolite), b