Summary
Amenhotep III ruled Egypt for about 38 years, around 1390–1352 BC, when the country was at the height of its wealth and power. His reign was largely peaceful, sustained by gold from Nubia and diplomacy with the great kings of the Near East. He was one of the greatest builders in Egyptian history: Luxor Temple, the Colossi of Memnon and a vast mortuary temple on the west bank are his. His wife, Queen Tiye, was one of the most powerful women of ancient Egypt, his son was Akhenaten, and his grandson was almost certainly Tutankhamun.
Who Was Amenhotep III?
Amenhotep III was the ninth king of the 18th Dynasty, the son of Thutmose IV and a minor wife, Mutemwia. He came to the throne young, perhaps around the age of 12, and inherited an empire built by his warrior ancestors, stretching from Syria to the Fourth Cataract of the Nile in Sudan.
Unlike them, he fought only one recorded campaign, in Nubia early in his reign. The rest of his long rule was a time of peace, trade and luxury, which is why he is often called “Amenhotep the Magnificent”. His throne name, Nebmaatre, means “Lord of truth is Ra”.
Queen Tiye
Amenhotep’s chief wife, Tiye, was not a princess. She was the daughter of Yuya and Tjuyu, an officer of the chariotry and a priestess from the town of Akhmim, whose rich tomb was found almost intact in the Valley of the Kings in 1905. Her parents’ gilded masks and coffins are among the treasures of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir; read about them in ancient Egyptian masks.
Tiye appears beside the king at the same scale on statues, which was very unusual, and foreign kings wrote to her directly. After her husband’s death she remained a powerful figure at the court of her son, Akhenaten.
Diplomacy: The Amarna Letters
Amenhotep III kept the peace through diplomacy and gold. The Amarna Letters, more than 350 clay tablets written in Akkadian cuneiform, the international language of the day, preserve his correspondence and that of his son with the kings of Babylon, Mitanni, Assyria and the Hittites, and with vassal rulers in Canaan. The great kings called each other “brother”, exchanged lavish gifts and arranged royal marriages; several foreign princesses, including the Mitannian princesses Gilukhepa and Tadukhepa, joined Amenhotep’s household. A recurring theme is the foreign kings asking for more Egyptian gold, which was said to be “as plentiful as dust” in Egypt. See how this trade worked in the economy and trade of ancient Egypt.
The Commemorative Scarabs
Amenhotep announced the events of his reign in an unusual way: on large stone scarabs, sent out in many copies across Egypt and beyond. Five series survive:
- The marriage scarab, announcing Queen Tiye and naming her parents.
- The lion-hunt scarab, claiming that the king killed 102 lions with his own arrows in the first ten years of his reign.
- The wild-bull hunt scarab.
- The Gilukhepa scarab, recording the arrival of the Mitannian princess with 317 women of her household.
- The lake scarab, recording a vast pleasure lake dug for the queen.
Read what the scarab itself meant in ancient Egyptian symbols.
A Builder on a Grand Scale
- Luxor Temple: the heart of the temple, including the elegant colonnade and the great sun court, is Amenhotep III’s work. In 1989, a cache of statues was found buried in the sun court, among them a superb quartzite statue of the king, now in the Luxor Museum.
- His mortuary temple at Kom el-Hettan on the west bank was the largest temple ever built in Thebes, bigger even than Karnak at the time. It was ruined by earthquakes and later stone-robbing, and archaeologists are still raising its fallen statues.
- Karnak: he built the Third Pylon and added to the temple of the goddess Mut, where hundreds of granite statues of the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet were set up in his reign.
- Malkata: a huge palace city on the west bank, with painted halls, a festival hall and an artificial harbour.
- Nubia: temples at Soleb and Sedeinga in modern Sudan, where he was worshipped as a god in his lifetime.
8-Day Cairo, Siwa and White & Black Desert Adventure
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View This TripThe Colossi of Memnon
The two giant seated statues known as the Colossi of Memnon are all that stands of the gateway to Amenhotep’s mortuary temple. Each is about 18 metres high, carved from a single block of quartzite sandstone, and shows the king seated, with his mother and his wife Tiye at his legs.
After an earthquake in 27 BC cracked the northern statue, it began to make a sound at dawn, perhaps as the stone warmed and moisture evaporated. Greek and Roman visitors believed it was Memnon, a hero of the Trojan War, greeting his mother Eos, the dawn, and left more than 100 inscriptions on its legs. The “singing” stopped after the statue was repaired in Roman times. The Colossi are the first stop on most tours of the west bank, including our Valley of the Kings tour. See the Colossi of Memnon page.
Jubilees, Death, Tomb and Mummy
Amenhotep III celebrated three Sed festivals, royal jubilees meant to renew the king’s power, in the last decade of his reign, in years 30, 34 and 37. He died around 1352 BC and was succeeded by his son Amenhotep IV, who changed his name to Akhenaten and launched a religious revolution centred on the sun disk, the Aten.
Amenhotep III was buried in tomb WV22 in the West Valley, a quieter branch of the Valley of the Kings. His mummy was later moved by priests to the tomb of Amenhotep II (KV35), where it was found in 1898. Since the Pharaohs’ Golden Parade of 2021 it has been displayed at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo. Read more in Egyptian mummies and sarcophagi.
Where to See Amenhotep III in Egypt
| Where | What to see |
|---|---|
| Colossi of Memnon, Luxor | The two giant statues of the king |
| Luxor Temple | His colonnade and sun court |
| Luxor Museum | The quartzite statue from the Luxor Temple cache |
| Karnak | The Third Pylon and the Sekhmet statues in the precinct of Mut |
| Egyptian Museum, Cairo | The colossal statue of the king and Tiye; the tomb of Yuya and Tjuyu |
| NMEC, Cairo | His mummy |
Meet his family and successors in our guides to Egyptian pharaohs and Seti I.
Amenhotep III: FAQ
Who was Amenhotep III?
A pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty who ruled Egypt for about 38 years, around 1390–1352 BC, during a time of great wealth and peace. He was the father of Akhenaten and probably the grandfather of Tutankhamun.
Who was Amenhotep III’s wife?
His chief wife was Queen Tiye, daughter of Yuya and Tjuyu, one of the most influential queens in Egyptian history.
What did Amenhotep III build?
Much of Luxor Temple, the largest mortuary temple in Thebes with its Colossi of Memnon, additions at Karnak, the palace city of Malkata and temples in Nubia.
Where is the mummy of Amenhotep III?
In the Royal Mummies Hall of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo.
What are the Colossi of Memnon?
Two 18-metre statues of Amenhotep III that once guarded the entrance to his mortuary temple on Luxor’s west bank.
