The Black Pyramid of Amenemhat III at Dahshur
The Black Pyramid of Amenemhat III at Dahshur is one of the most important Middle Kingdom pyramids in Egypt. It is the only one of the eight pyramids built at Dahshur that still has a substantial portion of its original structure above ground, and it is the largest of the Middle Kingdom pyramids. Yet it is also a master class in engineering failure: the builders miscalculated the strength of the bedrock, and the entire structure cracked almost as soon as it was finished.
Amenemhat III
Amenemhat III, also called Amenemhet III, was the sixth pharaoh of the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt, the dynasty that ruled during the Middle Kingdom. He came to the throne around 1860 BCE and ruled for about 45 years, one of the longest reigns in Egyptian history. His reign was a period of internal peace, prosperity, and artistic achievement, marked by the opening of new mines in the Sinai, the development of the Fayum, and the construction of major temples and pyramids. For the broader history, see our guide to the Middle Kingdom of Egypt.
Amenemhat III built two pyramids, both still standing. The first was the Black Pyramid at Dahshur, which he began early in his reign. The second was the Pyramid of Hawara, in the Fayum, which he built as his final resting place after the Black Pyramid had been abandoned. The Hawara pyramid was famous in the ancient world for the Labyrinth of Hawara, an enormous building of 12 large courts and 3,000 rooms described by Herodotus as surpassing even the pyramids in wonder. Almost nothing of the Labyrinth survives today.
The First Pyramid at Dahshur
The earliest Twelfth Dynasty pyramid at North Dahshur is the White Pyramid, also called the North Pyramid of Dahshur, traditionally attributed to Senusret III (the attribution to Amenemhat III is a minority view). It is now largely ruined, with only a small mound remaining.
The Black Pyramid, by contrast, is firmly attributed to Amenemhat III. It is the only major pyramid at Dahshur that retains a substantial portion of its original structure. The pyramid is built of mudbrick, with a casing of fine white limestone that has been almost entirely robbed away. The exposed mudbrick has weathered to a dark color, giving the pyramid its modern name.
The Design
The Black Pyramid was designed to be about 75 meters (about 245 feet) tall, with a base of about 105 meters (about 345 feet) on each side. The core of the pyramid was built of mudbrick, with a casing of fine white limestone. The internal structure was unusually elaborate, with a complex of chambers and corridors beneath the pyramid that included the burial chamber, a series of storerooms, and a network of access tunnels.
The pyramid was surrounded by a large mortuary complex, including a mortuary temple on the east side, a causeway, and a valley temple at the edge of the flood plain. The complex was originally enclosed by a massive wall, the remains of which can still be seen.
The Disaster
The pyramid was a disaster. The bedrock at Dahshur, on which the pyramid was built, was not strong enough to support the enormous weight of the structure. As the pyramid was being built, the bedrock began to subside, and the entire structure cracked. The burial chamber collapsed, the corridors caved in, and the pyramid’s internal structure was a mass of fractured stone.
The Egyptians tried to repair the damage, but the problems were too fundamental. They added a series of timber beams, stone supports, and even an outer “shroud” of mudbrick to try to stabilize the structure, but the cracks continued to grow. Within a few years of completion, the pyramid had to be abandoned. Amenemhat III moved his burial to a new pyramid at Hawara, in the Fayum, and the Black Pyramid was left to ruin.
The collapse was so severe that the burial chamber is now inaccessible, and the pyramid’s interior has never been properly explored. The tomb of Neferuptah, Amenemhat III’s daughter, which was located near the Black Pyramid, was robbed in antiquity, and only a few objects have been recovered.
The Repairs
The Egyptian engineers made a remarkable effort to repair the pyramid. The most important evidence of the repairs is a series of timber beams that were inserted into the structure, in a pattern that the modern archaeologist Dieter Arnold of the German Archaeological Institute has described as a kind of “internal scaffolding.” The beams have been radiocarbon dated to the Middle Kingdom, confirming that they were inserted by the original builders.
The repairs did not work. The pyramid continued to subside, and the cracks continued to grow. The repair work is, however, a remarkable testimony to the determination of the Egyptian engineers. They knew the structure was failing, and they tried to fix it.
The Modern Excavation
The Black Pyramid was first excavated in the late nineteenth century by the French archaeologist Jacques de Morgan, who found the complex of tombs of the royal family in the valley temple. The pyramid itself was examined by Flinders Petrie in 1883 and by the German Archaeological Institute in the 1980s.
The most important modern work was done by the German Archaeological Institute in 1984 and the following years. The team, led by Dieter Arnold, established the chronology of the pyramid, identified the failure of the bedrock as the cause of the collapse, and recovered evidence of the repairs.
The Queen’s Tombs
The valley temple of the Black Pyramid is the burial place of several queens of the Middle Kingdom. The most important is the tomb of Nubhetepti (also called Nubkhaes), a queen of Amenemhat III, and the tomb of Neferuptah, the king’s daughter. Neferuptah’s tomb contained a beautiful set of jewelry, including a gold pectoral and a set of silver vessels, now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
The Black Pyramid Today
The Black Pyramid is now one of the most visited pyramids at Dahshur. The dark, mudbrick core, with its characteristic dark color, is in striking contrast to the white casing of the older Red Pyramid of Sneferu, about 2 km to the north. The pyramid is also an important destination for those interested in the Middle Kingdom, and for those interested in the engineering problems of the Egyptian builders.
The pyramid is open to visitors, and the surrounding area is a popular destination for those interested in the lesser-known pyramids. The other major pyramids at Dahshur, including the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid, are also nearby.
The Lessons of the Black Pyramid
The Black Pyramid is a master class in engineering failure, but it is also a remarkable testament to the resilience and the ingenuity of the Egyptian engineers. They knew the structure was failing, they tried to fix it, and they did not pretend that it had succeeded. They moved the burial to a new pyramid, and they left the Black Pyramid as a record of their work.
The Black Pyramid also reminds us that the Egyptians were not infallible. They were a civilization with great achievements and great failures, and they made mistakes. The Black Pyramid is one of the most striking examples of those mistakes, and it stands as a powerful corrective to the rosy picture of Egyptian engineering painted by 19th-century Egyptology. Verner, The Pyramids (2001), and Lehner, The Complete Pyramids (1997), both treat the Black Pyramid as the central case study for the engineering limits of Middle Kingdom pyramid construction, and they are the most useful starting points in English.