Semna Dispatches

The Semna Dispatches are copies of reports sent from Egyptian fortresses in Nubia, such as Semna, to the administration at Thebes in the reign of Amenemhat III. Preserved on a papyrus found in a tomb at Thebes and now in the British Museum, they record patrols, the movements of Medjay and Nubian traders and the control of the frontier. They show the close surveillance of Egypt's southern border in the Twelfth Dynasty.