Mentuhotep II
| Mentuhotep II | |
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Mentuhotep II on a relief from his mortuary temple in Deir el-Bahari
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| Pharaoh | |
| Reign | c. 2061–2010 BC (estimates vary) (11th Dynasty) |
| Predecessor | Intef III |
| Successor | Mentuhotep III |
| Consort | Tem, Neferu II, Ashayet, Henhenet, Kawit, Kemsit, Sadeh |
| Children | Mentuhotep III |
| Father | Intef III |
| Mother | Iah |
| Died | 1995 BC ? |
| Burial | mortuary temple at Deir-el-Bahri |
| Mortuary Temple of Mentuhotep II in hieroglyphs | |||||||||||||||
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3ḫ-swt-nb-ḥpt-Rˁ AkhsutnebhepetRe "Transfigured are the places of Nebhepetre" |
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3ḫ-swt-Jmn Akhsutamun "Transfigured are the places of Amun" |
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Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II (reigned c. 2061 BC – 2010 BC) was a Pharaoh of the 11th Dynasty who reigned for 51 years. Around his 39th year on the throne he reunited Egypt, thus ending the First Intermediate Period. Consequently, he is considered the first pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom.
Mentuhotep II was the son of Intef III and Intef III's wife Iah who may also have been his sister. This lineage is demonstrated by the stele of Henenu (Cairo 36346), an official who served under Intef II, Intef III and his son, which the stele identifies as Horus s-ankh-[ib-t3wy], Mentuhotep II's first Horus name. As for Iah, she bore the title of mwt-nswt, "King's mother". The parentage of Mentuhotep II is also indirectly confirmed by a relief at Shatt er-Rigal. Mentuhotep II had many wives who were buried with him in or close to his mortuary temple:
She was buried in the tomb TT319 of Deir el-Bahri.
Mentuhotep II is considered to be the first ruler of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. The Turin Canon credits him with a reign of 51 years. Many Egyptologists have long considered two rock reliefs, showing Mentuhotep II towering over smaller figures labeled king "Intef", to be conclusive evidence that his predecessor Intef III was his own father; this is, however, not entirely certain, as these reliefs may have had other propagandistic purposes, and there are other difficulties surrounding Mentuhotep's true origin, his three name-changes, and his frequent attempts to claim descent from various gods.
When he ascended the Theban throne, Mentuhotep II inherited the vast land conquered by his predecessors from the first cataract in the south to Abydos and Tjebu in the north. Mentuhotep II's first fourteen years of reign seem to have been peaceful in the Theban region as there are no surviving traces of conflict firmly datable to that period. In fact the general scarcity of testimonies from the early part of Mentuhotep's reign might indicate that he was young when he ascended the throne, an hypothesis consistent with his 51 years long reign.
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