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Architecture in the Middle Kingdom (about 2025-1700 BC) and Second Intermediate Period (about 1700-1550 BC)

Pyramids are still the most important royal funerary buildings. At the beginning of the Twelfth Dynasty they were still built in stone, but under Senusret II the material for pyramid cores was mud brick (with a limestone casing).

A few temples of the period have been excavated. In the Middle Kingdom limestone is the main building material for many temples. Mud is still an important material. Senusret I seems to have been the first king who rebuilt and enlarged the temples in a programme encompassing the whole country.

The most impressive surviving examples of non-royal funerary architecture are the rock cut tombs of local governors in Middle Egypt. Officials buried at royal cemeteries were buried beneath mastabas, as in the Old Kingdom.

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