A'MENEM'HAT. The name of four Egyptian kings of the twelfth dynasty. AMENEMIIAT I.— He reigned for thirty years, beginning about 2130 B.C. Pow lie came to the throne is not known. but on his accession lie found Egypt in a state of great disorder. He thoroughly reorganized the government. restored order, and conducted a wise and vigorous administration. Ile checked the power of the great nobles, and personally superintended a new survey of the whole land. Amenemhat warred in Nubia and on the Asiatic frontier of Egypt, but his chief attention was devoted to internal affairs. He was a great builder, and his monuments are found from Nubia to the Delta. In later times lie was es teemed a sage, and, in a work composed, appar ently. under the ninteenth dynasty, lie is repre sented as giving instructions in the art of gov ernment, based on his own experience, to his son Usertesen (afterward Usertesen I.). AMENEM ITAT II.—He reigned for 35 years,beginning about 2066 n.c. During the first two years of his reign lie was regent with his father, Usertesen 1., and, for three years before his death, his son User tes•n II. was associated with him in the gov ernment. In the twenty-eighth year of his reign lie sent an expedition to Punt on the Somali coast. A MENEM II AT III.—Son of Usertesen III. He reigned for 44 years, from about 1986 n.c. Monuments of this king are found throughout Egypt, hut his greatest W01•: was connected with the Fayinn (Coptic, Phiom, "the lake"). Amen
emhat I. (q.v.), had built a dam, reclaiming a eonsiderable extent of land from the highest part of the bed of Lake Mceris. Amenemhat greatly extended this system of damming. By means of a large embankment, about 20 miles long. he reclaimed some 40 square miles of fer tile land, and, at the same time. converted the lake into a gigantic reservoir. whose waters, re plenished annually by the inundation of the were used for irrigating the adjacent country. The lake continued to serve this purpose down to the fifth century B.C. Later it was gradually dried up, and, under the Ptolemaic dynasty, a Macedonian colony was established on a portion of its former bed. The pyramid of Amenemhat 111., at Hawn ra, near 111ahun, is built of Nile brick and formerly had a casing of limestone. When entered by Petrie, in 1889, the King's stone sarcophagus was found in the sepul chral chamber, but the mummy had been re moved. Adjoining the pyramid are the ruins of the famous Labyrinth, formerly a gigantic peri style temple, covering an area 1000 feet long by 800 feet broad. AAIENEAIIIAT IV.—Son of Amen emhat HI., reigned for some nine years, from about 1941 'Lc. His reign seems to have been marked by no event of special importance.