Senusret III Khakhaure Senusret III ( also written as Senwosret III or Sesostris III ) was a pharaoh of Egypt . He ruled from 1878 BC to 1839 BC , and was the fifth monarch of the Twelfth Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom . Among his achievements was the building of the Canal of the Pharaohs . He was a great pharaoh of the Twelfth Dynasty and is considered to be perhaps the most powerful Egyptian ruler of the dynasty . Consequently , he is regarded as one of the sources for the legend about Sesostris . His military campaigns gave rise to an era of peace and economic prosperity that reduced the power of regional rulers and led to a revival in craftwork , trade and urban development . Senusret III was one of the few kings who were deified and honored with a cult during their own lifetime . Family . Senusret III was the son of Senusret II and of Khenemetneferhedjet I also called Khenemetneferhedjet I Weret ( " the elder " ) . Two wives of Senusret III are known for certain . These are Khenemetneferhedjet II and Neferthenut , both mainly known from their burials next to the pyramid of the king at Dahshur . Several daughters are known , although they are also just attested by the burials around the king ' s pyramid and their exact relation to the king is disputable . These include Sithathor , Menet , Senetsenebtysy and Meret . Amenemhat III was most likely a son of the king . Other sons are not known . Initiatives . Senusret III cleared a navigable canal through the first cataract . ( This was probably different from the Canal of the Pharaohs , which Senusret III also apparently tried to build . ) He also relentlessly pushed his kingdom ' s expansion into Nubia ( from 1866 to 1863 BC ) where he erected massive river forts including Buhen , Semna and Toshka at Uronarti . He carried out at least four major campaigns into Nubia in his Year 8 , 10 , 16 and 19 respectively . His Year 8 stela at Semna documents his victories against the Nubians through which he is thought to have made safe the southern frontier , preventing further incursions into Egypt . Another great stela from Semna dated to the third month of Year 16 of his reign mentions his military activities against both Nubia and Canaan . In it , he admonished his future successors to maintain the new border which he had created : His final campaign which was in Year 19 was less successful because the king ' s forces were caught by the Nile being lower than normal and they had to retreat and abandon their campaign to avoid being trapped in hostile Nubian territory . Such was his forceful nature and immense influence that Senusret III was worshipped as a god in Semna by later generations . Jacques Morgan , in 1894 , found rock inscriptions near Sehel Island documenting his digging of a canal under the king . Senusret III erected a temple and town in Abydos , and another temple in Medamud . Length of reign . His pyramid was constructed at Dahshur . A papyrus in the Berlin Museum shows Year 20 of his reign is equivalent to Year 1 of his son Amenemhat III . This means that he initiated a coregency with his son in this year . According to Josef W . Wegner , a Year 39 hieratic control note was recovered on a white limestone block from : Wegner stresses that it is unlikely that Amenemhet III , Senusret ' s son and successor , would still be working on his father ' s temple nearly 4 decades into his own reign . He notes that the only possible solution for the block ' s existence here is that Senusret III had a 39 - year reign , with the final 20 years in coregency with his son Amenemhet III . Since the project was associated with a project of Senusret III , his Regnal Year was presumably used to date the block , rather than Year 20 of Amenemhet III . This implies that Senusret was still alive in the first two decades of his son ' s reign . Visually , Senusret III is known for his strikingly somber sculptures in which he appears careworn and grave . His court included the viziers Sobekemhat , Nebit and Khnumhotep . Ikhernofret worked as treasurer for the king at Abydos . Senankh cleared the canal at Sehel for the king . Pyramid and complex . Senusret ' s pyramid complex was built north - east of the Red Pyramid of Dashur and in grandeur far surpassed those from the early 12th dynasty in size and underlying religious conceptions . There has been speculation that Senusret was not necessarily buried there but rather in his sophisticated funerary complex in Abydos with his pyramid more likely to have been a cenotaph . Senusret ' s pyramid is 105 meter square and 78 meters high . The total volume was about 288 , 000 cubic meters . The pyramid was built of a core of mud brick s . They were not made a consistent size implying that standardized moulds weren ' t used . The burial chamber was lined with granite . Above the vaulted burial chamber was a second relieving chamber that was roofed with 5 pairs of limestone beams each weighing 30 tons . Above this was a third mudbrick vault . The pyramid complex included a small mortuary temple and 7 smaller pyramids for his queens . There is also an underground gallery with further burials for royal women . Here were found the treasures of Sithathor and queen Mereret . There was also a southern temple , however this has since been destroyed . Trivia . Senusret is a major character in Christian Jacq ' s historical fiction series " The Mysteries of Osiris "