Mentuhotep III

Mentuhotep III
Osiride statue of the 11th dynasty pharaoh Mentuhotep III, on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Pharaoh of Egypt
Reign	2010 BC – 1998 BC, 11th dynasty
Predecessor	Mentuhotep II
Successor	Mentuhotep IV
Royal titulary Prenomen: s-ankh-ka-re Giving Life to the Soul of Re[1] Nomen: Mentu-hotep Montu is Content[2]
Mother	Tem
Died	1998 BC

Sankhkare Mentuhotep III (Mentohotep III)^[3] of the Eleventh dynasty was Pharaoh of Egypt during the Middle Kingdom. He was assigned a reign of 12 years in the Turin Canon.

Family

Mentuhotep III was the son and successor of Mentuhotep II. One of the wives of Mentuhotep II, Tem, was given the title Mother of the Dual King and based on that title she is almost certainly the mother of Mentuhotep III. Pharaoh Mentuhotep III's family is a mystery and it is not known if his successor Mentuhotep IV was a son of his or not.^[4] Mentuhotep IV's mother is known to have been Queen Imi. If he was the son of Mentuhotep III, Imi must have been the wife of Mentuhotep III.^[5]

Monuments

Sankhkare Mentuhotep had a mud-brick temple erected at Thoth Hill in Western Thebes. The temple was built on the site of an older archaic temple. It was dedicated to the god Horus. This temple may have been destroyed by an earthquake towards the end of the 11th dynasty.^[6]

Sankhkare Mentuhotep was responsible for several building projects in the 12 years of his reign. His own mortuary temple was begun in Deir el-Bahari, but never completed. The temple was located a short distance from his father's mortuary temple. A causeway would have led up to a temple platform. Inscriptions show that the king was buried in a chamber cut into the rock-face.^[6]

References

1. ^ King List (chronological)
2. ^ Clayton, Peter A. Chronicle of the Pharaohs: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers and Dynasties of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. p72. 2006. ISBN 0-500-28628-0
3. ^ Firth, Lesley (editor-in-chief) et al (1985). "Mentohotep III". Who Were They? The Simon & Schuster Color Illustrated Question & Answer Book. Little Simon Book, Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York City, ISBN 0671604767. , page 12.
4. ^ Dodson, Aidan and Hilton, Dyan. The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. 2004. ISBN 0-500-05128-3
5. ^ Tyldesley, Joyce. Chronicle of the Queens of Egypt. Thames & Hudson. 2006, pp. 66-68. ISBN 0-500-05145-3
6. ^ ^{a b} Wilkinson, Richard H., The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt, Thames and Hudson, 2000,pp. 37, 172, 173, 181, ISBN 0-500-05100-3

Further reading

• Grajetzki, W. (2006). The Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt: History, Archaeology and Society. London: Duckworth. pp. 23–25. ISBN 0-7156-3435-6. 

External links

• Mentuhotep III

Preceded by Mentuhotep II

Pharaoh of Egypt Eleventh Dynasty

Succeeded by Mentuhotep IV