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93-565: To the rear of the temple are chapels built by Amenhotep III of the 18th Dynasty , and Alexander. Other parts of the temple were built by Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. During the Roman era , the temple and its surroundings were a legionary fortress and the home of the Roman government in the area. During the Roman period a chapel inside the Luxor Temple originally dedicated to the goddess Mut

186-408: A "porch of drunkenness" built onto the temple by the pharaoh Hatshepsut , during the height of her twenty-year reign. In a later myth developed around the annual drunken Sekhmet festival, Ra, by then the sun god of Upper Egypt, created her from a fiery eye gained from his mother, to destroy mortals who conspired against him (Lower Egypt). In the myth, Sekhmet's blood-lust was not quelled at the end of

279-403: A 100,000 years, and may our mistress grant both of us great joy. And let us act as friends. Is Šauška for me alone my god[dess], and for my brother not his god[dess]? The likeliest explanation is that the statue was sent to Egypt "to shed her blessings on the wedding of Amenhotep and Tadukhepa, as she had been sent previously for Amenhotep and Gilukhepa ." Moran agrees that this explanation

372-669: A city dedicated to his new deity, the Aten . Amenhotep built extensively at the temple of Karnak , including the Luxor temple with two pylons , a colonnade behind the new temple entrance, and a new temple to the goddess Ma'at . Amenhotep dismantled the Fourth Pylon of the Temple of Amun at Karnak to construct a new Third Pylon — and created a new entrance to this structure where he erected two rows of columns with open papyrus capitals down

465-442: A country that I love, and then return." Now I herewith send her, and she is on her way. Now, in the time, too, of my father,...[she] went to this country, and just as earlier she dwelt there and they honored her, may my brother now honor her 10 times more than before. May my brother honor her, [then] at [his] pleasure let her go so that she may come back. May Šauška (i.e., Ishtar ), the mistress of heaven, protect us, my brother and me,

558-425: A diameter of over 3 metres (9.8 ft). The architraves , on top of these columns, are estimated to weigh 70 tons. These architraves may have been lifted to these heights using levers . This would be a time-consuming process and also would require great balance to get to such heights. A common alternative theory regarding how they were moved is that large ramps were constructed of sand, mud, brick or stone and that

651-468: A forensic examination of his mummy revealed worn and cavity-pitted teeth which must have inflicted constant pain. An examination of the mummy by the Australian anatomist Grafton Elliot Smith concluded that the pharaoh had died at between the age of 40 and 50. He was survived by at least one child, his successor Amenhotep IV. His wife Tiye is known to have outlived him by at least twelve years, as she

744-450: A minor wife, Mutemwiya . His reign was a period of unprecedented prosperity and splendour, when Egypt reached the peak of its artistic and international power, and as such he is considered one of ancient Egypt's greatest pharaohs. When he died in the 38th or 39th year of his reign he was succeeded by his son Amenhotep IV, who later changed his name to Akhenaten . Amenhotep was the son of Thutmose IV and his minor wife Mutemwiya . He

837-619: A mosque around 1,200, which is more than 4,000 years of continuous religious worship. In 2013, a Chinese student posted a picture of engraved writing that read "Ding Jinhao was here" ( Chinese : 丁锦昊到此一游 ) in Chinese on a sculpture. This discovery spurred debate about increased tourism after the media confirmed a Chinese student caused this and other defacements. The graffiti has since been partially cleared. Amenhotep III Amenhotep III ( Ancient Egyptian : jmn-ḥtp(.w) Amānəḥūtpū , IPA: [ʔaˌmaːnəʔˈħutpu] ; " Amun

930-611: A nearly undamaged 6 feet (1.8 m)-high pink quartzite statue of the king wearing the Double Crown . It was mounted on a sled, and may have been a cult statue. Only the name of the god Amun had been hacked out wherever it appeared in the pharaoh's cartouche , clearly part of Akhenaten's campaign against the god of his father. One of Amenhotep's most popular epithets was Aten-tjehen which means "the Dazzling Sun Disk"; it appears in his titulary at Luxor temple and

1023-478: A number of scientists of the Napoleon expedition, including Vivant Denon , during 1798–1799. Claude-Étienne Savary describes the complex in rather great detail in his work of 1785; especially in light of the fact that it is a fictional account of a pretend journey to Upper Egypt, composed out of information from other travellers. Savary did visit Lower Egypt in 1777–78, and published a work about that too. This

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1116-597: A number of settlements on the island, and they exported copper and other raw materials from Cyprus to Egypt in exchange for luxury goods and other commodities. However, the Egyptian presence on Cyprus was at times interrupted by incursions of other powers, including the Hittites and the Mycenaeans. Thutmose, the eldest son of Amenhotep III with his wife Tiye, became Crown Prince, but died before his father. Amenhotep

1209-433: A series of tests that demonstrated the pharaoh's fitness for continuing as ruler of Egypt. Based on indications left by Queen Tiye's steward Khenruef, the festival may have lasted two to eight months. Amenhotep wanted his Sed Festivals to be far more spectacular than those of the past. He appointed Amenhotep, son of Hapu to plan the ceremony, potentially because he was one of the few courtiers still alive to have served at

1302-568: A small temple with a colonnade (dedicated to Thutmose III ) at Elephantine , a rock temple dedicated to Amun "Lord of the Ways" at Wadi es-Sebuam, and the temple of Horus of Miam at Aniba ...[as well as founding] additional temples at Kawa and Sesebi . His enormous mortuary temple on the west bank of the Nile was, in its day, the largest religious complex in Thebes , but the king built too close to

1395-521: A straight line for about 2,700 metres (8,900 ft) between the Luxor Temple and the Karnak area was lined with human-headed sphinxes; in ancient times it is probable that these replaced earlier sphinxes which may have had different heads. Six barque shrines , serving as way stations for the barques of the gods during festival processions, were set up on the avenue between the Karnak and Luxor Temple. Along

1488-636: A vast mix of temples , pylons , chapels, and other buildings near Luxor , Egypt. Construction at the complex began during the reign of Senusret I (reigned 1971–1926 BC) in the Middle Kingdom ( c.  2000–1700 BC ) and continued into the Ptolemaic Kingdom (305–30 BC), although most of the extant buildings date from the New Kingdom . The area around Karnak was the ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut ("The Most Selected of Places") and

1581-410: A village name, and name of the complex, is first attested in 1668, when two capuchin missionary brothers, Protais and Charles François d'Orléans, travelled though the area. Protais' writing about their travel was published by Melchisédech Thévenot ( Relations de divers voyages curieux , 1670s–1696 editions) and Johann Michael Vansleb ( The Present State of Egypt , 1678). The first drawing of Karnak

1674-650: Is "hidden" or the "hidden god". Major construction work in the Precinct of Amun-Re took place during the Eighteenth Dynasty , when Thebes became the capital of the unified Ancient Egypt. Almost every pharaoh of that dynasty added something to the temple site. Thutmose I erected an enclosure wall connecting the Fourth and Fifth pylons, which comprise the earliest part of the temple still standing in situ . Hatshepsut had monuments constructed and also restored

1767-613: Is Year 38, which appears on wine jar-label dockets from Malkata . He may have lived briefly into an unrecorded Year 39 and died before the wine harvest of that year. Reliefs from the wall of the temple of Soleb in Nubia and scenes from the Theban tomb of Kheruef , Steward of the King's Great Wife, Tiye, depict Amenhotep as a visibly weak and sick figure. Scientists believe that in his final years he suffered from arthritis and obesity. Further,

1860-486: Is attested only once, on a colossal limestone group of statues from Medinet Habu, and Beketaten only appears in Amarna . Amenhotep is also sometimes credited as the father of Smenkhkare or Tutankhamun , with varying proposals for their mothers, but these theories are not as accepted as his other, known children. In addition to Tiye, Amenhotep had several other wives . In Regnal Year 10, Amenhotep married Gilukhepa ,

1953-527: Is found in Paul Lucas ' travel account of 1704, ( Voyage du Sieur Paul Lucas au Levant ). It is rather inaccurate, and can be quite confusing to modern eyes. Lucas travelled in Egypt during 1699–1703. The drawing shows a mixture of the Precinct of Amun-Re and the Precinct of Montu, based on a complex confined by the three huge Ptolemaic gateways of Ptolemy III Euergetes / Ptolemy IV Philopator , and

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2046-480: Is mentioned in several Amarna letters dated from her son's reign, as well as depicted at the royal dinner table in Akhenaten's years 9 and 12, in scenes from the tomb of Huya . Foreign leaders communicated their grief at the pharaoh's death, with Tushratta saying: When I heard that my brother Nimmureya had gone to his fate, on that day I sat down and wept. On that day I took no food, I took no water. Amenhotep

2139-512: Is satisfied" ), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great and Hellenized as Amenophis III , was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty . According to different authors following the "Low Chronology", he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC, or from June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC, after his father Thutmose IV died. Amenhotep was Thutmose's son by

2232-520: Is the largest of the precincts of the temple complex, and is dedicated to Amun-Re , the chief deity of the Theban Triad . There are several colossal statues, including the figure of Pinedjem I which is 10.5 metres (34 ft) tall. The sandstone for this temple, including all of the columns, was transported from Gebel Silsila 100 miles (161 km) south on the Nile river. It also has one of

2325-508: Is the series of over 200 large commemorative stone scarabs that have been discovered over a large geographic area ranging from Syria ( Ras Shamra ) through to Soleb in Nubia. Similarly, five other scarabs state that his wife Gilukhepa of Mitanni arrived in Egypt with a retinue of 317 women. She was the first of many such princesses who would enter the pharaoh's family. Karnak Temple The Karnak Temple Complex , commonly known as Karnak ( / ˈ k ɑːr . n æ k / ), comprises

2418-589: Is the temple dedicated to the divine Egyptian ruler or, more precisely, to the cult of the Royal Ka. Examples of the cult of the Royal Ka can be seen with the colossal seated figures of the deified Ramesses II before the Pylon and at the entrance to the Grand colonnade are clearly Ka-statues, cult statues of the king as embodiment of the royal Ka. The avenue (known as wi.t ntr "path of god"; طريق الكباش ) which went in

2511-650: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties , where it lay until discovered by Victor Loret in 1898. For the 18th dynasty, the mummy shows an unusually heavy use of subcutaneous stuffing to make the mummy look more lifelike. The mummy has museum inventory number CG 61074. In April 2021, his mummy was moved from the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization , along with those of 17 other kings and 4 queens in an event termed

2604-942: The Great Hypostyle Hall also may have begun during the Eighteenth Dynasty (although most new building was undertaken under Seti I and Ramesses II in the Nineteenth). Merneptah , also of the Nineteenth Dynasty, commemorated his victories over the Sea Peoples on the walls of the Cachette Court , the start of the processional route (also known as the Avenue of Sphinxes ) to the Luxor Temple . The last major change to

2697-454: The Pharaohs' Golden Parade . Amenhotep has the distinction of having the most surviving statues of any Egyptian pharaoh, with over 250 identified. These statues provide a series of portraits covering the entire length of his reign. When Amenhotep died, he left behind a country at the very height of its power and influence, commanding immense respect in the international world. However, it

2790-523: The floodplain , and less than two hundred years later it was reduced to ruins. Much of the masonry was purloined by Merneptah and later pharaohs for their own construction projects. All that remained standing was the gateway with the Colossi of Memnon — two massive stone statues depicting Amenhotep,18 m (59 ft) high. Amenhotep also built the Third Pylon at Karnak and erected 600 statues of

2883-480: The viziers Ramose , Amenhotep , Aperel , and Ptahmose . Other officials included the treasurers Ptahmose and Merire; the high stewards, Amenemhat Surer and Amenhotep (Huy) ; and the Viceroy of Kush, Merimose. Amenhotep, son of Hapu held many offices during the reign of Amenhotep the pharaoh, but is best known for receiving the right to build his mortuary temple behind that of the king. Amenhotep, son of Hapu,

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2976-446: The "marriage scarabs," Amenhotep affirmed his divine power and the legitimacy of his wife. With Tiye, Amenhotep fathered at least two sons, Crown Prince Thutmose and Amenhotep IV (later called Akhenaten) . In addition, several daughters are frequently credited to the couple: Sitamun , Henuttaneb , Iset , Nebetah , and Beketaten . Most of the daughters appear frequently on statues and reliefs from Amenhotep's reign. However, Nebetah

3069-497: The 15th and 16th centuries who visited only Lower Egypt and published their travel accounts, such as Joos van Ghistele and André Thévet , put Thebes in or close to Memphis . The first European description of the Karnak temple complex was by unknown Venetian in 1589 and is housed in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze , although his account gives no name for the complex. Karnak ("Carnac") as

3162-469: The Babylonian monarch may indeed have followed from Egyptian royal custom, which allowed a claim upon the throne through descent from a royal princess. It could also be viewed as a diplomatic stratagem to enhance Egypt's prestige, as Amenhotep himself married the daughters of several foreign rulers while refusing them his own daughters. The Amarna Letters also reference the exchange between Amenhotep and

3255-555: The Colossi of Memnon as well as from Tanis in the Delta. In 2014, two giant statues of Amenhotep toppled by an earthquake in 1200 BC were reconstructed from more than 200 fragments and re-erected at the northern gate of the king's funerary temple. One of the most stunning finds of royal statues dating to his reign was made as recently as 1989 in the courtyard of Amenhotep 's colonnade of the Temple of Luxor. The cache of statues included

3348-611: The Great recognized the Christian religion, and in 356 Constantius II ordered the closing of pagan temples throughout the Roman empire, into which Egypt had been annexed in 30 BC. Karnak was by this time mostly abandoned, and Christian churches were founded among the ruins, the most famous example of this is the reuse of the Festival Hall of Thutmose III 's central hall, where painted decorations of saints and Coptic inscriptions can still be seen. Thebes' exact placement

3441-488: The Johns Hopkins University team, led by Betsy Bryan (see below) the Precinct of Mut has been opened to the public. Six hundred black granite statues were found in the courtyard to her temple. It may be the oldest portion of the site. In 2006, Bryan presented her findings of a festival that included apparent intentional overindulgence in alcohol. Participation in the festival included the priestesses and

3534-511: The Karnak complex is largely the history of Thebes and its changing role in the culture. Religious centers varied by region, and when a new capital of the unified culture was established, the religious centers in that area gained prominence. The city of Thebes does not appear to have been of great significance before the Eleventh Dynasty and previous temple building there would have been relatively small, with shrines being dedicated to

3627-587: The Mitanni King Tushratta of the statue of a healing goddess, Ishtar of Nineveh , late in Amenhotep's reign. Scholars have generally assumed that the statue's sojourn to Egypt was requested by Amenhotep in order to cure him of his various ailments, which included painful abscesses in his teeth. However, William L. Moran 's analysis of Amarna Letter EA 23 , relating to the dispatch of the statue to Thebes, discounts this theory. The arrival of

3720-630: The Precinct of Amun-Re's layout was the addition of the First Pylon and the massive enclosure walls that surround the precinct, both constructed by Nectanebo I of the Thirtieth Dynasty . Ancient Greek and Roman writers wrote about a range of monuments in Upper Egypt and Nubia , including Karnak, Luxor temple, the Colossi of Memnon , Esna , Edfu , Kom Ombo , Philae , and others. In 323 AD, Roman emperor Constantine

3813-457: The Precinct of Amun-Re, and the Luxor Temple . The Precinct of Mut is very ancient, being dedicated to an Earth and creation deity, but not yet restored. The original temple was destroyed and partially restored by Hatshepsut , although another pharaoh built around it in order to change the focus or orientation of the sacred area. Many portions of it may have been carried away for use in other buildings. The key difference between Karnak and most of

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3906-464: The ages had buried three quarters of the temple which contained the courts and colonnades which formed the nucleus of the Arab half of the modern village. Maspero had taken an interest earlier, and he had obtained the post of Mariette Pasha to complete the job in 1881. Not only was there rubbish, but there were also barracks, stores, houses, huts, pigeon towers, which needed to be removed in order to excavate

3999-603: The annual Opet Festival , in which a cult statue of Amun was paraded down the Nile from nearby Karnak Temple ( ipet-sut ) to stay there for a while with his consort Mut, was to promote the fertility of Amun-Re and the Pharaoh. However, other studies at the temple by the Epigraphic Survey team present a completely new interpretation of Luxor and its great annual festival (the Feast of Opet). They have concluded that Luxor

4092-473: The avenue the stations were set up for ceremonies such as the Feast of Opet which held significance to the temple. Each station had a purpose, for example the fourth station was the station of Kamare, which cooled the oar of Amun. The Fifth station of Kamare was the station which received the beauty of Amun. Lastly the Sixth Station of Kamare was a shrine for Amun, Holy of Steps. A small mudbrick shrine

4185-418: The battle and led to her destroying almost all of humanity, so Ra had tricked her by turning the Nile as red as blood (the Nile turns red every year when filled with silt during inundation) so that Sekhmet would drink it. The trick, however, was that the red liquid was not blood, but beer mixed with pomegranate juice so that it resembled blood, making her so drunk that she gave up slaughter and became an aspect of

4278-410: The buildings of the ancient Egyptians were used by later cultures for their own religious purposes, such as Coptic churches. The Great Hypostyle Hall in the Precinct of Amun-Re has an area of 50,000 sq ft (5,000 m ) with 134 massive columns arranged in 16 rows. One hundred and twenty-two of these columns are 10 metres (33 ft) tall, and the other 12 are 21 metres (69 ft) tall with

4371-483: The celebration as the affirmation of transition to divinity. Diplomatic correspondence from Amenhotep's reign are partially preserved in the Amarna Letters , a collection of documents found near the city of Amarna . The letters come from the rulers of Assyria , Mitanni , Babylon , Hatti , and other states, typically including requests by those rulers for gold and other gifts from Amenhotep. The letters cover

4464-764: The centre of this newly formed forecourt. The forecourt between the Third and Fourth Pylons, sometimes called an obelisk court, was also decorated with scenes of the sacred funerary barques of the deities Amun , Mut , and Khonsu . The king also started work on the Tenth Pylon at the Temple of Amun. Amenhotep's first recorded act as king — in his Years 1 and 2 — was to open new limestone quarries at Tura , just south of Cairo and at Dayr al-Barsha in Middle Egypt to undertake his great building projects. He virtually covered Nubia with new monuments: ...including

4557-521: The course of past and current restoration works. Like other Egyptian structures, a common technique used was symbolism, or illusionism. For example, to the Egyptian, a sanctuary shaped like an Anubis jackal was really Anubis . At the Luxor Temple, the two obelisks (the smaller one closer to the west is now at the Place de la Concorde in Paris) flanking the entrance were not the same height, but they created

4650-482: The daughter of Shuttarna II of Mitanni . He later married Tadukhepa , daughter of Tushratta of Mitanni, in or around Regnal Year 36 of his reign. Other wives, whose names are unknown, included: a daughter of Kurigalzu , king of Babylon ; a daughter of Kadashman-Enlil , king of Babylon ; a daughter of Tarhundaradu , ruler of Arzawa ; and a daughter of the ruler of Ammia (modern-day Syria). Finally, he married at least two of his daughters, Sitamun and Iset, in

4743-467: The earliest worshipped to those worshipped much later in the history of the Ancient Egyptian culture. Although destroyed, it also contained an early temple built by Amenhotep IV ( Akhenaten ), the pharaoh who later would celebrate a nearly monotheistic religion he established that prompted him to move his court and religious center away from Thebes. It also contains evidence of adaptations, where

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4836-519: The early deities of Thebes, the Earth goddess Mut and Montu . Early building was destroyed by invaders. The earliest known artifact found in the area of the temple is a small, eight-sided column from the Eleventh Dynasty, which mentions Amun-Re. Amun (sometimes called Amen) was long the local tutelary deity of Thebes. He was identified with the ram and the goose. The Egyptian meaning of Amun

4929-412: The establishment of a long coregency between the two rulers and in favor of either no coregency or one of at most two years. Donald B. Redford , William J. Murnane , Alan Gardiner , and Lawrence Berman contest the view of any coregency whatsoever between Akhenaten and his father. Evidence against a coregency includes Amarna Letter EA 27 , which is dated to Regnal Year 2 of Amenhotep IV. The subject of

5022-420: The event. He directed Amenhotep to use his mace to knock on the temple doors. Beside him, Amenhotep-Hapu mirrored his effort like a royal shadow. The king was followed by Queen Tiye and the royal daughters. When moving to another venue, the banner of the jackal god Wepwawet, "Opener of Ways" preceded the King. The king changed his costume at each major activity of the celebration. One of the major highlights of

5115-624: The festival was the king's dual coronation. He was enthroned separately for Upper and Lower Egypt. For Upper Egypt, Amenhotep wore the white crown but changed to the red crown for the Lower Egypt coronation. After the Sed festival, Amenhotep transcended from being a near-god to one divine. The king may have later traveled across Egypt following the festival, potentially reenacting the ceremony for different audiences. Few Egyptian kings lived long enough for their own celebration. Those who survived used

5208-458: The gentle Hathor . The complex interweaving of deities occurred over the thousands of years of the culture. This portion of the site is dedicated to the son of Mut and Amun-Re, Montu , a war-god. It is located to the north of the Amun-Re complex and is much smaller in size. It is not open to the public. The temple that Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) constructed on the site was located east of

5301-461: The goddess Sekhmet in the Temple of Mut to the south. Some of the most magnificent statues of New Kingdom Egypt date to his reign "such as the two outstanding couchant rose granite lions originally set before the temple at Soleb in Nubia " as well as a large series of royal sculptures. Several black granite seated statues of Amenhotep wearing the nemes headress have come from excavations behind

5394-489: The illusion that they were. With the layout of the temple they appear to be of equal height, but using illusionism, it enhances the relative distances hence making them look the same size to the wall behind it. Symbolically, it is a visual and spatial effect to emphasize the heights and distance from the wall, enhancing the already existing pathway. From the Middle Ages , the population of Luxor had settled in and around

5487-590: The king moved to the palace permanently around Regnal Year 29. Once completed, it was the largest royal residence in Egypt. Amenhotep celebrated three Sed festivals in Regnal Years 30, 34, and 37, each at Malkata palace in Western Thebes. A temple of Amun and festival hall were built especially for the celebrations. The Sed festival was a tradition that dated to the Old Kingdom , consisting of

5580-472: The lake. This event was commemorated on at least eleven commemorative scarabs. From other scarabs, Amenhotep is known to have killed either 102 or 110 lions in the first ten years of his reign. Despite the martial prowess Amenhotep displayed during the hunt, he is known to have participated in only one military incident. In Regnal Year Five, he led a victorious campaign against a rebellion in Kush. This victory

5673-457: The largest is currently open to the public. The term Karnak often is understood as being the Precinct of Amun-Re only, because this is the only part most visitors see. The three other parts, the Precinct of Mut , the Precinct of Montu , and the dismantled Temple of Amenhotep IV , are closed to the public. There also are a few smaller temples and sanctuaries connecting the Precinct of Mut,

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5766-610: The largest obelisks, weighing 328 tons and standing 29 metres (95 ft) tall. Located to the south of the newer Amun-Re complex, this precinct was dedicated to the mother goddess , Mut , who became identified as the wife of Amun-Re in the Eighteenth Dynasty Theban Triad. It has several smaller temples associated with it and has its own sacred lake , constructed in a crescent shape. This temple has been ravaged, many portions having been used in other structures. Following excavation and restoration works by

5859-490: The last Sed Festival, held for Amenhotep II. In preparation for the first Sed Festival, Amenhotep, son of Hapu enlisted scribes to gather information from records and inscriptions, most found in ancient funerary temples, describing the appropriate rituals and costumes. Temples were built and statues erected up and down the Nile. Craftsmen and jewelers created ornaments commentating the event including jewelry, ornaments, and stelae. The scribe Nebmerutef coordinated every step of

5952-480: The last decade of his reign. Jar-label inscriptions from Regnal Year 30 indicate that Sitamun was elevated to the status of Great Royal Wife by that time. Although shunned by common Egyptians, incest was not uncommon among royalty. A sculpture restored by Amenhotep for his grandfather, Amenhotep II, shows Sitamun with a young prince beside her. This has led to theories that Sitamun was the mother of Smekhkare and/or Tutankhamun. Amenhotep probably became pharaoh when he

6045-566: The letter involves a complaint from the Mitannian king Tushratta, claiming that Amenhotep IV did not honor his father's promise to send Tushratta gold statues as part of the marriage arrangement between Tadukhepa , and Amenhotep III. This correspondence implies that if any coregency occurred between Amenhotep and Akhenaten, it lasted no more than a year. However in February 2014, Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced that findings from

6138-487: The main place of worship of the 18th Dynastic Theban Triad , with the god Amun as its head. It is part of the monumental city of Thebes , and in 1979 it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List along with the rest of the city. Karnak gets its name from the nearby, and partly surrounded, modern village of El-Karnak, 2.5 kilometres (1.6 miles) north of Luxor. The original name of the temple

6231-440: The massive 113 m long, 43 m high and 15 m thick, First Pylon of the Precinct of Amun-Re. Karnak was visited and described in succession by Claude Sicard and his travel companion Pierre Laurent Pincia (1718 and 1720–21), Granger (1731), Frederick Louis Norden (1737–38), Richard Pococke (1738), James Bruce (1769), Charles-Nicolas-Sigisbert Sonnini de Manoncourt (1777), William George Browne (1792–93), and finally by

6324-461: The original Precinct of Mut , that had been ravaged by the foreign rulers during the Hyksos occupation. She had twin obelisks , at the time the tallest in the world, erected at the entrance to the temple. One still stands, as the second-tallest ancient obelisk still standing on Earth ; the other has toppled and is broken. Another of her projects at the site, Karnak's Red Chapel or Chapelle Rouge ,

6417-527: The other temples and sites in Egypt is the length of time over which it was developed and used. Construction of temples started in the Middle Kingdom and continued into Ptolemaic times. Approximately thirty pharaohs contributed to the buildings, enabling it to reach a size, complexity, and diversity not seen elsewhere. Few of the individual features of Karnak are unique, but the size and number of features are vast. The deities represented range from some of

6510-403: The period from Year 30 of Amenhotep until at least the end of Akhenaten 's reign. In Amarna Letter EA 4 , Amenhotep is quoted by the Babylonian king Kadashman-Enlil I in firmly rejecting the latter's entreaty to marry one of this pharaoh's daughters: From time immemorial, no daughter of the king of Egy[pt] is given to anyone. Amenhotep's refusal to allow one of his daughters to be married to

6603-543: The pharoah for a million years. Side view: A series of festival (ḥb) emblems together with a Sed (sd) emblem identifying the stela as one made for Amenhotep 's Sed Festival royal jubilee. Top and back view: These show malicious damage where the cartouche was chipped away. Cassirer suggests this was another example of Akhenaten's vandalism against Amun Other gods displayed on the stela, Re and Ma’at, showed no damage. The altered stela may then have been displayed by Akhenaten. Another striking characteristic of Amenhotep's reign

6696-556: The population. Historical records of tens of thousands attending the festival exist. These findings were made in the temple of Mut because when Thebes rose to greater prominence, Mut absorbed the warrior goddesses, Sekhmet and Bast , as some of her aspects. First, Mut became Mut- Wadjet -Bast, then Mut-Sekhmet-Bast (Wadjet having merged into Bast), then Mut also assimilated Menhit , another lioness goddess, and her adopted son's wife, becoming Mut-Sekhmet-Bast-Menhit, and finally becoming Mut- Nekhbet . Temple excavations at Luxor discovered

6789-456: The site. (There still exists a working mosque within the temple which was never removed.) Maspero received from the Egyptian minister of public works the authorization needed to obtain funds in order to negotiate compensation for the pieces of land covered by the houses and dependencies. The Luxor Temple was built during the New Kingdom and dedicated to the Theban Triad consisted of Amun , his consort Mut , and their son Khonsu . The focus of

6882-525: The statue is known to have coincided with Amenhotep's marriage with Tadukhepa , Tushratta 's daughter, in the pharaoh's 36th year; letter EA 23's arrival in Egypt is dated to "regnal year 36, the fourth month of winter, day 1" of his reign. Furthermore, Tushratta never mentions in EA 23 that the statue's dispatch was meant to heal Amenhotep of his maladies. Instead, Tushratta writes in part: ... Thus Šauška of Nineveh, mistress of all lands: "I wish to go to Egypt,

6975-428: The stones were then towed up the ramps. If stone had been used for the ramps, they would have been able to use much less material. The top of the ramps presumably would have employed either wooden tracks or cobblestones for towing the megaliths. There is an unfinished pillar in an out-of-the-way location that indicates how it would have been finished. Final carving was executed after the drums were put in place so that it

7068-416: The temple, at the southward end of the mount. Due to this, centuries of rubble had accumulated, to the point where there was an artificial hill some 14.5 to 15 metres (48 to 49 ft) in height. The Luxor Temple had begun to be excavated by Professor Gaston Maspero after 1884, once he had been given permission to commence operations. The excavations were sporadic until 1960. Over time, accumulated rubbish of

7161-600: The tomb of Vizier Amenhotep-Huy gave "conclusive evidence" of a coregency that lasted at least eight years. In the tomb, the cartouches of the two pharaohs were carved side by side. However, this conclusion has since been called into question by other egyptologists, according to whom the inscription means only that construction on Amenhotep-Huy's tomb started during Amenhotep III's reign and ended under Akhenaten's, and Amenhotep-Huy thus simply wanted to pay his respects to both rulers, carving their names separately rather than simultaneously. Amenhotep's greatest attested regnal date

7254-552: Was Ipet-isut , meaning "The Most Select of Places". The complex's modern name "Karnak" comes from the nearby village of el-Karnak, which means "fortified village". The complex is a vast open site and includes the Karnak Open Air Museum . It is believed to be the second most visited historical site in Egypt; only the Giza pyramid complex near Cairo receives more visits. It consists of four main parts, of which only

7347-491: Was a country wedded to age-old political and religious certainties under the Amun priesthood. The resulting upheavals from his son Akhenaten 's reforming zeal shook these old certainties to their foundations, and forced the momentous question whether a pharaoh was more powerful than his society as represented in the worship of Amun. Akhenaten even moved the capital away from Thebes, the center of Amun's worship, and built Amarna ,

7440-450: Was between the ages of 6 and 12. While it is likely that a regent would have ruled until he came of age, none is attested in the surviving records. In Regnal Year 11, Amenhotep commanded the construction of an artificial lake at Tiye's hometown of Djakaru. He then celebrated a Festival of Opening the Lake in the third month of Inundation, day sixteen, and rowed the royal barge Aten-tjehen on

7533-581: Was born probably around 1401 BC. Later in his life, Amenhotep commissioned the depiction of his divine birth to be displayed at Luxor Temple. Amenhotep claimed that his true father was the god Amun , who had taken the form of Thutmose IV to father a child with Mutemwiya. In Regnal Year 2, Amenhotep married Tiye , the daughter of Yuya and Thuya . Tiye was the Great Royal Wife throughout Amenhotep's reign. Many commemorative scarabs were commissioned and distributed during Amenhotep's reign. On

7626-462: Was built in the courtyard of Nectanebo I in early second century (126 CE) and was dedicated to Serapis and Isis ; it was presented to Roman Emperor Hadrian on his birthday. The active Abu Haggag Mosque ( مسجد أبو الحجاج بالأقصر ) is located within the temple, standing on the ancient columns themselves. That part of the Luxor Temple was converted to a church by the Romans in 395 AD, and then to

7719-809: Was buried in tomb WV22 in the Western Valley of the Valley of the Kings outside of Thebes. The tomb is the largest in the West Valley of the Kings and includes two side chambers for his Great Royal Wives, Tiye and Sitamun. However, it does not seem that either woman was buried there. During the reign of Smendes in the Third Intermediate Period , Amenhotep's mummy was later moved to the mummy cache in KV35 along with several other pharaohs of

7812-485: Was commemorated by three rock-carved stelae found near Aswan and Saï in Nubia. The official account of Amenhotep's military victory emphasizes his martial prowess with the hyperbole typical of the period. There is a significant attestation for the court officials who served during Amenhotep's reign, primarily through the discovery of their tombs in the Theban Necropolis . Among these court officials were

7905-574: Was deified after his death and was one of the few non-royals to be worshiped in such a manner. The palace of Malkata was built in the 14th century BC and its ancient name was Per -Hay , "House of Rejoicing". Originally, the palace was known as the Palace of the Dazzling Aten . Built mostly out of mud-brick, it was Amenhotep's residence throughout most of the later part of his reign. Construction began around Regnal Year 11 and continued until

7998-544: Was frequently used as the name for one of his palaces, and for the Year 11 royal barge, as well as for a company of Amenhotep's army. In 2021, excavations revealed a settlement near Amenhotep's mortuary temple, called the Dazzling Aten , believed to have been built by king to house craftsmen and labourers working on royal projects at Thebes, along with its own bakery and cemetery. A Sed Festival Stela of Amenhotep III

8091-528: Was intended as a barque shrine and originally may have stood between her two obelisks. She later ordered the construction of two more obelisks to celebrate her sixteenth year as pharaoh; one of the obelisks broke during construction, and thus, a third was constructed to replace it. The broken obelisk was left at its quarrying site in Aswan , where it still remains. Known as the unfinished obelisk , it provides evidence of how obelisks were quarried. Construction of

8184-517: Was more likely. Further, Moran argues that the contents of Amarna Letter EA 21 support this claim, wherein Tushratta asks the gods, including Ishtar, for their blessing of the marriage. In the 14th century BCE, the pharaoh sent an expedition to Cyprus to establish Egyptian control over the island, which was subsequently maintained for several centuries. During this time, the Egyptians established

8277-450: Was not damaged while being placed. Several experiments moving megaliths with ancient technology were made at other locations – some of which are amongst the largest monoliths in the world. The sun god's shrine was built so that it has light focused upon it during the winter solstice . In 2009, UCLA launched a website dedicated to virtual reality digital reconstructions of the Karnak complex and other resources. The history of

8370-469: Was taken from Egypt to Europe by an art dealer. Once owned by Eric Cassirer, it is now believed to be in a private collection in the United States. The white alabaster stela is 10 × 9 cm (3.94 × 3.54 in), but only its upper half survived. Front view: The god Heh, representing the number one million, holds notched palm leaves signifying years and the cartouche of Amenhotep, symbolically raising

8463-624: Was transformed into a Tetrarchy cult chapel and later into a church. Along with the other archeological sites in Thebes, the Luxor Temple was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979. The Luxor Temple was built with sandstone from the Gebel el-Silsila area, which is located in South-Western Egypt. This sandstone is referred to as Nubian sandstone. It was used for the construction of monuments in Upper Egypt as well as in

8556-444: Was ultimately succeeded by his second son, who ascended the throne as Amenhotep IV and later took the name Akhenaten. It has long been theorized that Amenhotep III shared a coregency with his son Amenhotep IV. Lawrence Berman has claimed that proponents of the coregency theory tended to be art historians, while historians remained unconvinced. Eric Cline , Nicholas Reeves , Peter Dorman , and other scholars argue strongly against

8649-455: Was unknown in medieval Europe, though both Herodotus and Strabo give the exact location of Thebes and how long up the Nile one must travel to reach it. Maps of Egypt, based on the 2nd century Claudius Ptolemaeus ' mammoth work Geographia , had been circulating in Europe since the late 14th century, all of them showing Thebes' (Diospolis) location. Despite this, several European authors of

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