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68 The Dynasty of the Oppression

If you con sult J.P. Lepre’s book The Egyp tian Pyr a mids, you will find con fir ma tion of this
fact. Prior to the 12th Dy nasty and up to the fourth king of this dy nasty (Senusert II.) ALL THE
PYRAMIDS WERE CONSTRUCTED OF LIMESTONE with cas ings of gran ite or pol ished lime -
stone. Starting with Senusert II. and con tin u ing with the re main ing pha raohs of the 12th Dy nasty,
ALL of the pyr a mids were built with a BRICK CORE! No won der the Is ra el ites were so busy mak -
ing bricks!

“In its su per struc ture also, the pyr a mid of Sesostris II [Senusert II] DIFFERED in many re -
spects from its pre de ces sors. To a height of 40 feet from the ground, the INNER CORE con -
sisted of a knoll of rock; above that, in place of rock, there was a frame work of re tain ing
walls with the in ter ven ing spaces FILLED WITH MUD-BRICKS. This core was cased in
the nor mal man ner with blocks of
fine lime stone....” (The Pyr a mids
of Egypt, p.225).

The sixth king of this dy nasty
-- Amenemhat III. -- was one of
the MIGHTIEST pha raohs ever to
rule Egypt. He built TWO PYR-
AMIDS, the fa mous “Lab y rinth,”
the LARGEST of all Egyp tian
tem ples, and, of course, the lake
and ca nal sys tems to con trol the
Nile, that Diodorus de scribed.
The mud-brick core of Amenemhet III’s pyramid in Hawara
The first pyr a mid of Amen-
emhet, along with that of Sesostris
II, lie to the north and south of the pyr a mid of Amenemhet II, and fol low “the ex am ple set by
Sesostris II, both in the EMPLOYMENT OF BRICK for the in ner core of the su per struc ture and in
the elab o ra tion of the sub struc ture into a kind of maze of cham bers and cor ri dors” (ibid, p. 226).
Also, Amenemhet’s pyr a mid “lay within an INNER BRICK ENCLOSURE wall de signed with al -
ter nate pro jec tions and re cesses like the stone en clo sure wall of Sesostris II’s pyr a mid” (ibid,
pps.233-234).

Of Amenemhat III’s sec ond pyr a mid, at Hawara, the au thor [J.P. Lepre] made the fol low ing
ob ser va tions in March of 1987: “Now a shape less heap om i nously ris ing from the flat, desert ter -
rain. COMPRISED OF SMALL, MUD BRICKS (ap prox i mately 12" long by 8" wide by 4" high).”
-- The Egyp tian Pyr a mids, pps. 214-215.

Not only was the pyr a mid of Amenemhet III. built of brick, but the res i dences of the priests
on the north side of the cause way to the pyr a mid were also con structed of this material!

The Inevitable Conclusion

When you put all of these fac tors to gether -- the tes ti mo nies of Josephus and Diodorus, the
non-royal back ground of Amenemhat I., the ar chae o log i cal dis cov er ies of Dr. Manfred Bietak, the

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