The Pyra­mid of Amen­emhat I is a mon­u­men­tal tomb of a 12th Dynasty pharaoh, con­struct­ed around 1990 BCE. It rep­re­sents a shift from the mas­sive stone struc­tures of the Old King­dom to the more prag­mat­ic archi­tec­tur­al approach of the Mid­dle King­dom. Orig­i­nal­ly, it stood 55 meters tall with a base of 83 meters and a slope angle of 54°. Builders used mud­brick, lime­stone rub­ble, and even repur­posed blocks from old­er monuments—including stones believed to come from the pyra­mids of Khu­fu and Unas—showcasing the resource­ful­ness of the peri­od.
Inside, inclined pas­sage­ways and ver­ti­cal shafts lead to a bur­ial cham­ber once pro­tect­ed by large gran­ite block­ing stones. The asso­ci­at­ed tem­ple fea­tured depic­tions of Nile deities, and tombs of roy­al rel­a­tives and offi­cials sur­round­ed the com­plex. Today, much of the struc­ture has col­lapsed, and the inter­nal cham­bers are sub­merged due to ground­wa­ter. Archae­o­log­i­cal explo­ration began in 1882 and con­tin­ues to yield insights into Mid­dle King­dom crafts­man­ship and funer­ary prac­tices.