Pyramid of Amenemhat III at Hawara

Hawara is an archaeological site at the entrance to the Fayyum oasis, featuring a mudbrick pyramid built by Pharaoh Amenemhat III of the Twelfth Dynasty around 1860-1814 BC. The pyramid's adjacent mortuary temple became known as the "Labyrinth," described by Herodotus and Strabo as an elaborate complex of galleries and courtyards. Petrie's 1889 excavation uncovered the burial chamber and 146 Roman-period mummy portraits -- among the rarest surviving painted portraits from classical antiquity. The burial chamber was carved from a single quartzite block with an ingenious sand-based sealing mechanism.