(Nebma’atre) (d. 1353 B.C.E.) Ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty
The son of TUTHMOSIS IV and Queen MUTEMWIYA, Amenhotep III reigned from 1391 B.C.E. until his death. As a young man, Amenhotep III married TIYE (1), the daughter of Hurrian master of horse at THEBES. Together they ruled an empire that extended from northern Sudan to the Euphrates River. His mother, Mutemwiya, is believed by some scholars to have been the daughter of ARTATAMA, the MITANNI king, given to Egypt as part of Tuthmosis IV’s treaties with that nation. Amenhotep III’s birth was recorded in the temple in LUXOR, given divine intervention and divine patronage. Tiye, whom he had married before ascending the throne, bore him AKHENATEN (Amenhotep IV), and princesses SITAMUN (2), BAKETAMUN, HENUTTANEB, NEBETAH, ISET (3), and other children. Amenhotep III married Iset and Sitamun when they came of age.
A vast series of commemorative scarabs issued by the pharaoh provide a portrait of his first 12 years on the throne. One SCARAB memorializes the arrival of GILUKIPA (or Khirgipa), a Mitanni princess who came with an entourage of more than 300 Mitannis to be his wife. Her niece, TADUKHIPA, arrived at the end of Amenhotep’s reign and possibly married Akhenaten. These Mitanni royal women were sent to Egypt by King Shuttarna II, who was their relative.
The addition of such women to AMENHOTEP III’s harem led to the construction of a new palace to the south of MEDINET HABU, on the western shore of the Nile at THEBES, called MALKATA, or “the Place Where Things Are Picked Up,” by modern Egyptians. This palace was actually a miniature city with several royal compounds, an artificial lake reportedly dug and filled within a matter of weeks, and a harbor. Shrines and temples, as well as bureaucratic offices, were part of the complexes.
Tributes and trade profits provided Amenhotep III with unending wealth as he built many shrines and monuments, many of which have not survived. Among these monuments are the COLOSSI OF MEMNON, two gigantic statues of Amenhotep III that were part of his mortuary temple. The Greeks named the statues after Memnon, the Trojan hero slain by Achilles. Strabo, the historian,
reported that the northern statue of Amenhotep III emitted a soft bell-like sound at each dawn. In the early third century B.C.E. the Roman emperor Septimius Severus ordered repairs on the upper part of that statue, which were performed crudely, and as a result the singing sound stopped forever.
Amenhotep III celebrated three HEB-SEDS, normally used to denote 30 years of rule. He constructed a palace, Per-Hay, “the Mansion of Rejoicing,” for this event. Queen Tiye and the massive bureaucracy of Egypt maintained foreign and domestic affairs, while Amenhotep lolled in Malkata, and the military might of Egypt suppressed any rebellions against the empire. The pharaoh could spend his time building on the Nile and erecting monuments in his honor at his leisure.
He was quite obese in his later years. His portraits, already sculpted in the style that would blossom in the ’AMARNA PERIOD, depict him as having a snub nose, full lips, and almond-shaped eyes. Troubled with severe tooth decay, a dynastic period condition, Amenhotep became ill. An ally, King TUSHRATTA of Babylon, sent him a statue of Ishtar—the Babylonian goddess of heal- ing—to restore his vigor and to demonstrate friendly concern.
Amenhotep III’s tomb in the VALLEY OF THE KINGS,on the western shore of Thebes, has three main corridors. The tomb chamber has a pillared hall, and the various chambers are all highly decorated. The red granite lid used on the sarcophagus for the burial of Amenhotep III was usurped by SETI I (1306–1290 B.C.E.) of the Nineteenth Dynasty. Amenhotep III’s mummy was discovered in the tomb of AMENHOTEP II. Modern scholars, however, do not believe that this embalmed body is truly Amenhotep III. There is considerable debate about the actual identity of several recovered remains.
Suggested Readings: Fletcher, J. Chronicle of a Pharaoh: The Intimate Life of Amenhotep III. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2000; O’Connor, D., and E. Cline, eds. Amenhotep III, Perspectives on His Reign. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998.
Amenhotep, son of Hapu (Huy) (fl. 14th century B.C.E.) Court official of the Eighteenth Dynasty A revered sage and scholar, he served in the reign of AMENHOTEP III (r. 1391–1353 B.C.E.). Amenhotep, son of Hapu, was one of only a few commoners to be deified in ancient Egypt. Also called Huy, he was from the Delta area of ATHRIBIS, born around 1460 B.C.E. He rose through the ranks of government service, including the office of scribe of the military, and then served as a commander, and eventually as a general. Amenhotep also supervised the building projects of Amenhotep III. When he died around 1380 B.C.E., at the age of 80, a funerary chapel was erected for him beside Amenhotep III’s temple.
Amenhotep, Son of Hapu, was depicted in many statues placed in KARNAK temple, a royal favor in that age. He is shown usually with long wavy hair instead of a formal wig. His association with the god AMUN brought about a claim by the temple priests of the Twenty-first Dynasty (1070–945 B.C.E.) that Amenhotep had divine origins. He was deified alongside IMHOTEP, the architect of the STEP PYRAMID of DJOSER (r. 2630–2611 B.C.E.). Clinics or shrines were developed for their cults, and ceremonies were conducted in their memory throughout Egypt.
