Who was Mentuhotep II?

After the end of the 6th dynasty (the last dynasty of the Old Kingdom) ancient Egypt fell apart into separate, rival kingdoms. This period constitutes the First Intermediate Period. At the end of this period, a line of kings that ruled from Thebes in the south, known as the 11th dynasty, gradually conquered the north. Mentuhotep II from this dynasty: under his rule the reunification was completed. He thereby inaugurated the next great period of cultural bloom of ancient Egypt: the Middle Kingdom.

Later generations of Egyptians still recognized Mentuhotep's importance, as the second (after Menes) to unite the Two Lands. In the Ramesseum (the mortuary temple of Ramesses II in Western Thebes) a relief shows a procession of priests carrying statues of kings. Among these are the following three (in this order):

• Menes, the 1st king of the 1st dynasty: the first to unite the nation;

• Mentuhotep II, 11th dynasty: the reunifier of the country after the First Intermediate Period;

• and Ahmose, 1st king of the 18th dynasty: reunifier of the land after the Second Intermediate Period.

The other statues are of the kings of the 18th and 19th dynasty: the immediate predecessors of Ramesses II. Apparently, the three unifiers served as a sort of "excerpt", representing all the older kings of Egypt.
 

Will the real Mentuhotep II please rise?

There is some confusion over exactly how many Mentuhotep's there once were. As a consequence, the builder of the mortuary complex at Deir el Bahri is sometimes referred to as Mentuhotep I, or even (in older books) as Mentuhotep III.
This question of the true number of Mentuhoteps is clouded by two issues:

• Mentuhotep I did probably exist, but he was not a king,

• and the next Mentuhotep (now usually referred to as II) has used no less then three different sets of names during his lifetime.

Jürgen von Beckerath in his book "Handbuch der Ägytischen Königsnamen" (1999) gives the following sequence of kings of the 11th dynasty:

• Mentuhotep I

• Antef I

• Antef II

• Antef III

• Mentuhotep II

• Mentuhotep III

• Mentuhotep IV

Of Mentuhotep I von Beckerath says: "(He) has not carried the title of king himself, but was later considered as the first king of the 11th dynasty" (page 76). He gives a Horus-name of this person which is only known from later kinglists, and which means "forefather". Von Beckerath: "This Horus-name is of course later fiction".
Antef I, II and III did call themselves king, but never used a complete set of royal titles. They contended themselves with a Horus name and a birth name. Based in Thebes, they controlled the south of the country. In the meantime, the 9th and 10th dynasties ruled the north from their capital in Heracleopolis. The battle zone between North and South was the region of Abydos and Assyut in Middle Egypt.
Mentuhotep II completed the reunification. He thereupon included a Nebty name and a throne name, and later also a Golden Horus name in his titulary.
 

The mortuary complex

On the west bank of the Nile, just opposite modern Luxor, lies what is generally known as Western Thebes. It consists of a series of mortuary temples of the kings of the 18th, 19th and 20th dynasty. Their tombs were a bit further to the west, on the other side of the mountains, in the Valley of the Kings. As a string of pearls, measuring some 3 kilometers from north to south, these mortuary temples were once set along the edge of the cultivation. Just one of these was placed considerably further into the desert, in the natural amphitheatre that is now known as Deir el Bahri: the mortuary temple of queen Hatsjepsut (18th dynasty). Thanks to intensive restoration works - and to its unique setting in this magnificent landscape - it is one of the key touristic sites of today. Busload after busload comes to see the temple of queen "Hot Chicken soup". From here, it just takes one glance to the left to see the remains of Mentuhotep's adjacent complex - but of the few that will take this glance, even fewer will remember it. And hardly surprising: it's no more then a ruin. Except for the platform, no part of it stands higher then 1 meter.

Why did Hatsjepsut select this place for her mortuary temple? It is very unlikely that the proximity of Mentuhotep's complex had nothing to do with this choice. The one thing that sets Hatsjepsut apart from other kings is her sex, and the resulting question of her legitimacy as king. Perhaps she chose this site to associate herself with one of Egypt's most famous kings, and thereby underline her legitimacy.

(Between the temples of Mentuhotep and Hatshepsut, and a little further to the back, a small complex from Tuthmosis III once existed. Of this, hardly anything remains.)

So let us now take a closer look at the mortuary complex of the illustrious Mentuhotep II, founder of the Middle Kingdom. The photographs in this section were made in February 2003. They are approx. 10-25 kB. If you click on them, you download a more detailed version of about 100 -150 kB.
 

1. Comparing "M" with "H"
   ....where "M" stands for the mortuary complex of Mentuhotep II, and "H" for the adjacent mortuary temple of Hatsjepsut.
    

2. The platform, 1
   Views from a distance.
    

3. The platform, 2
   Views from closer up.
    

4. On the platform
   With the enigmatic "central mound" or "mastaba".
    

5. Backstage, 1
   With the part of the platform behind the "mastaba".
    

6. Backstage, 2
   With the entrance to the tomb, and the offering niche.