# Mentuhotep II Source: https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/pharaohs/mentuhotep-ii Language: en # Mentuhotep II The reunifier whose temple gave Deir el-Bahari an early royal landmark. **Reign**: c.2055–2004 BCE **Dynasty**: 11th Dynasty **Period**: Middle Kingdom **Also written**: Nebhepetre Mentuhotep · Montuhotep II · Mentuhotpe II · منتوحتب نب حبت رع · نب حبت رع ## Who they were At Deir el-Bahari, Mentuhotep II’s terraced temple gives you a starting point for understanding the king who reunited Egypt. He belonged to the Theban Eleventh Dynasty and inherited a divided country: Thebes ruled the south, while a rival line at Herakleopolis ruled the north. He ended that division by force during a reign of about half a century. Historians conventionally date the Middle Kingdom from his reunification. ## Why they matter He is the reason Thebes stopped being a provincial town. Before him it was one southern centre among several; after him it was where the country was governed from, and the local god Amun began the rise that ends with Karnak. He also built, in the bay of cliff at Deir el-Bahari, a terraced mortuary complex on a rising axis — and five hundred years later Hatshepsut’s architects put her temple beside it and worked from the same idea at a larger scale. ## What happened The reunification came in the second half of the reign; the king’s Horus name was changed twice during it, and the changes are usually read as marking stages in the campaign, though what each stage was is not recorded. What followed was a rebuilding of the machinery of a single state after more than a century without one: provincial governors brought back under central appointment, quarrying and mining expeditions resumed, and Egyptian activity in Nubia restarted. His funerary complex at Deir el-Bahari is the surviving monument of the reign. It combined a causeway from the valley, a walled forecourt planted with trees, a terrace carried on colonnades, and a rock-cut sanctuary driven into the cliff behind. Statues of the king wrapped in the tight white robe of the jubilee festival came from it, and one of them — found in a passage under the forecourt in 1900 — is among the most reproduced objects of the period. ## What they built in Luxor The terraced mortuary complex at Deir el-Bahari, immediately south of where Hatshepsut’s temple was later raised. Nothing certainly of his survives standing at Karnak, though Theban temple building on any scale begins in this period. ## Where to meet them Look towards the remains of Mentuhotep II’s temple beside Hatshepsut’s. The neighbouring buildings let you compare royal monuments separated by centuries; the earlier temple is important context for the later design. How we label claims ## What is disputed Each claim below carries its evidence class. A claim marked interpretation or uncertain is not a weaker version of a fact — it is a different kind of statement, and the note says why. - Uncertain That the terrace of his complex was crowned by a pyramid. The central structure on the terrace is destroyed, and the reconstruction has been argued both ways for over a century — a small pyramid, or a flat-topped mound representing the primeval hill. Published reconstruction drawings differ, and the drawing a visitor sees on a panel is a choice between readings, not a record. - Interpretation That his two changes of Horus name track the stages of the reunification. The name changes are documented. Reading them as a sequence — local ruler, then conqueror of the north, then king of a united Egypt — is a widely held scholarly interpretation rather than something the sources state, and the dates at which each change happened are not fixed. Who added what ## Before and after [11th Dynasty **Mentuhotep II** c.2055–2004 BCE The reunifier whose temple gave Deir el-Bahari an early royal landmark. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/pharaohs/mentuhotep-ii) [12th Dynasty **Senusret I** c.1965–1920 BCE The oldest building you can walk around at Karnak is his, and it was found inside a pylon. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/pharaohs/senusret-i) [18th Dynasty **Hatshepsut** c.1473–1458 BCE A king who was a woman, and whose name was later cut out of her own walls. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/pharaohs/hatshepsut) Tomb ## Their tomb No tomb in this directory is recorded to them. [Tomb directory](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/tombs) Continue reading ## Explore the connections 1–1 / 4 [Temple · West bank ### Temple of Hatshepsut Terraces set straight into the cliff at Deir el-Bahari — and a reign that was later chiselled off its own walls. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/temple-of-hatshepsut)[God ### Amun The hidden god of Thebes, who became king of the gods and the state god of an empire. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/amun)[God ### Hathor Goddess of love, music and the western mountain — the one who receives the dead. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/hathor)[God ### Osiris Ruler of the dead, associated with restoration and renewal. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/osiris) Sources & further reading 4 Tier 2 The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw Oxford University Press Tier 2 The Encyclopaedia of Ancient Egyptian Architecture, Dieter Arnold I.B. Tauris Tier 2 Thebes in Egypt: A Guide to the Tombs and Temples of Ancient Luxor, Nigel and Helen Strudwick British Museum Press Tier 2 The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Aidan Dodson and Dyan Hilton Thames & Hudson Source review is incomplete. Consultation dates are shown only for checked references. Published works and institutional references for further reading. [Sources and review status](mailto:corrections@egyptmore.com?subject=Luxor101%20correction) [Pharaohs](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/pharaohs)