Amenemhat’s II son, Sesostri II, reigned in Egypt for about ten years and gave a remarkable contribution to the land reclaimation work ordering the construction of a barrage of the water in Bahr-Yussuf, building a dam in El Lahum that slowly became a set destination for the sovereigns who visited the marshy area.
In a short time a royal ipet was built to reclive the sovereign during their visits. Sesostri II decided to build his funeral complex exactly on “the mouth of the crocodile”.
Sesostri’s II pyramid was built around a rock spur using raw bricks and a covering of limestone slabs. The aspect of the monument is different from the one of the IV dynasty.
Its shape, in fact, appears squashed and the size is inferior compared to the colossal Giza. Next to this work there was the complex for the king’s afterlife, made by a funeral temple, a sanctuary and a downhill temple beyond the royal tombs of queen Atumuneferu and other noble ladies. Among theses there is Sithathoryunet’s tomb, the princess who took with her, in afterlife, beautiful jewels, real masterpieces of the Egyptian goldsmith’s craft. Diadems, gold strings, precious stones and pearl necklaces were able to survive the plunderers’ ravages. The sacks were, in fact, a problem that concerned greatly the pharaoh who tried to protect their burials from the thieves. The violators of the tombs knew that the main entrance in the pyrami was on the northern side, with the entrance corridor positioned toward the circumpolar stars. The workers of the building of Sesostri’s II funeral complex were settled in an adjacent village called Hotepsenurset. It was Petri who, confusing it with the name Lahun, later called it Kahun. Sesostri II decided to move the entrance to his tomb to confuse the ill-intentioned ones. The subjects dug a pit south of the pyramid that went down to a secret passage, excavated twelve meters deep, that entered the Ring’s funeral chamber, covered in granite. Sesostri II during his short reign was able to keep the peace in the country and sent pacific expeditions in the deserts and in Sinai. At his death in 1878 Bc, the throne passed to his son Sesostri III, the most famous pharaoh of the middle reign.