King Mentuhotep II
Nebhepetra Mentuhotep, also known as Mentuhotep II, was the founder of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and ruled for roughly fifty years, from 2061 to 2010 BC. He belonged to the 11th dynasty of Egyptian pharaohs.
Also in the lists of Abydos and Saqqara, Sankhkara is considered the immediate predecessor of Shetepibra Ammenemes I, founder of the 12th dynasty and initiator of the period known to us as the Middle Kingdom.
Certain inscriptions on isolated stone blocks in various cities of Upper Egypt show that Sankhkara was a brisk builder of temples and chapels. A long inscription engraved on the rocks of Wadi Hammamat during his eighth year of reign reports that his steward Henu was sent there to direct the stone quarries for the statues to be placed in the sacred buildings.
He says he left Coptic with three thousand well-armed soldiers after a police force cleared the way of the rebels. On the way to the Red Sea, he had many wells excavated. The inscription also speaks of a fleet sent to Punt to make a 'myrrh recipe' and it was precisely on the return that the work was carried out on the stone quarry. It is rather problematic to establish where Sankhkara was buried.
Next to Deir el-Bahri to the south lies the wide and elevated hill of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, and to the south of this, there is a valley more or less similar to the one chosen by Menthotpe I for his own grave, although very less picturesque, where you can see the vestiges of a wide elevated road and the beginning of a sloping tunnel. According to Winlock, this tunnel was hastily enlarged to form a burial chamber and then walled up.
It is however probable that Sankhkara was buried in those areas because, high on the cliffs that dominate the two valleys, the graffiti of the priests assigned to the funeral cult of the two Menthotpe remained.
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