Amenhotep III

Amenhotep III was the son of Thutmose IV and Queen Mutemwiya, ascending the throne as a youth. He ruled for nearly thirty-eight years from about 1390 to 1352 BC, with dates uncertain by about a decade. His reign represents the zenith of Egyptian political prestige, economic prosperity and cultural sophistication. With the empire secure and international borders stable, he devoted his long rule to magnificent artistic commissions and diplomacy rather than foreign conquest.

International relations were maintained through extensive diplomatic correspondence with kings of Babylonia, Assyria and Mitanni, famously recorded on clay cuneiform tablets known as the Amarna Letters. To cement foreign alliances, he took several foreign princesses into his household, though his chief royal consort remained Queen Tiye, an influential figure who appeared prominently alongside the king in official monumental art and state commemorative scarabs.

Amenhotep III transformed the architectural landscape of Egypt and Nubia. At Thebes, he constructed the monumental core of Luxor Temple, dedicated to the divine rejuvenation of kingship, as well as an immense mud-brick palace city at Malkata on the west bank. Further south at Soleb in Nubia, he erected a temple where he was venerated as a living divinity. His sprawling mortuary temple at Kom el-Hettan was the largest ever built in Egypt; though mostly destroyed by ancient earthquakes and stone reuse, the twin quartzite statues known as the Colossi of Memnon still stand prominently at the entrance.

He was buried in the Western Valley of the Kings in tomb WV22. Scholars know his reign in remarkable detail from commemorative scarabs, building inscriptions, the Amarna Letters and temple reliefs. His identified mummy was uncovered in the royal cache within tomb KV35.

Monuments

• Colossi of Memnon
• Luxor Temple
• Malkata Palace
• Soleb Temple

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