11th Dynasty -- After around 2190 BC, Egypt fell to pieces, the various provinces eventually coalescing around the cities of Thebes and Herakleopolis. The resulting civil war was won by the Thebans of the 11th Dynasty, led by King Mentuhotep II. He kept the capital in the south, and there he built the tomb shown above, at a site now called Deir el-Bahari. It was a terraced temple of an unusual form, perhaps once topped by a pyramid. The burial chamber was at the end of a long tunnel beginning in the courtyard at the rear of the temple.
