Nebma'atre Amenhotep III
Text by Gilukhipa & Ankhie

I am Nebmaatre Amenhotep III (1405-1367)
With my glory I was mightier than my father, and my son, although I left Egypt in a worse condition than it was when I got it from my father, Thutmose IV. Archeologists agree that I was one of the most humorous and extravagant Egyptian kings. I lived in great luxury, loved to build pretentious palaces and temples, had a harem with hundreds of Egyptian and Asian beauties and was devoted only to rejoicing. I really lived like a king and God, (well, I was one, wasn't I?) and together with my dignitaries I thought about the inexhaustible resources of my land and my unshakable power. As far as I gave some time to reign, I didn't engage in the army but in diplomacy and dynastic marriages. Along with queen Tiye (Tiyi, Teje, Tiy) I married one Babylonian princess, two Mitanni princesses and some daughters of second-rate rulers as oficial wives.

I undertook only one military action, in year five of my reign, when I went to Nubia. I went to Kara at the fourth cataract, otherwise I didn't go out of Kemet. The army I used as safeguard for hunting in the desert, what would be in order, if only the Hittites wouldn't endanger Kemet. The problems with them I let my generals solve. A living God need not be concerned with such things!

I reigned for almost 38 years and lived in a palace in the west of Wast (Malkatta). My throne name was Nebmaatre, "The Lord of Truth is Re." Later, Greek authors called me Amenophis (what an odd pronunciation!).

There are many things about my life, known partly from the texts in the temples and from the obelisks, partly from the so-called "reporter scarabs" (little scarab figures with hierogliphic messages on the bottom). At one of them I told you my birth place :"Nebmaatre was born in Wast". On an other one I left a message about my buildings in Iuni (Heliopolis): "Nebmaatre has built at Iuni". On a next: "Ankh,udja,seneb to the king of upper and lower Kemet, son of Ra Amenhotep, who has unending life and his beautiful wife, Tiye, ankh, udja, seneb The name of her father is Juja (Yuya), the name of her mother is Thuya. She is wife of the glorious king, his countries limits are south of Karoji and north of Mitanni". At the scarab about my marriage with the Mitanni princess Gilukhipa I wrote: "she came with her best servants, 317 women".

To the celebration of my hunting success: "In only one day of hunting he killed 40 bulls", on the celebration of the tenth year of my reign: "with his own arrows he killed 102 lions."

These and other acts are forgotten under the sand of thousands of years. The only things remaining are my buildings which are some of the most famous in whole Egypt. The greatest complex of buildings during my reign is in Luxor, at the Nile harbour promenade. There is a temple for the celebration of the new year festivals, which belonged to the Karnak temple of Amen and was built on a place where in earlier times a temple from the 12th Dynasty was standing. Even today there is my pylon, "the great column hall" with 14 columns, that are in the form of papyrus plants, a middle courtyard with a colonade (64 columns) and a closed vestibul (32 columns). At the end the holy temple with more than 20 rooms and the inner sanctuary with the tabernacle. Most of the columns and wall reliefs have survived under the sand. G. Maspero has cleaned the temple up and found out many things that we know today. You also know that architect of the temple was Amenhotep, Son of Hapu. He recieved a position of nearly a half-god in the Egyptian religion, after his death. A great thing the other Amenhotep and I, king and architect, have left you is in the temple of Karnak. For the first the pylon which is about 80m wide and then the line of six columns in couples, which are middle of the "Big gallery". These columns are the most wonderful buildings in the complexs, and from the bottom to the top they are full of hieroglyphs.

Three obelisks which I let stand in the coutyard were damaged by the time...100m south from the holy lake is sitting the Atum-Kheper scarab, the weight is 5t. From the temple complex of Mut, wife of Amun, you can see that what remained from my temple of Amun-Ra. It was only a little temple, about 70x40m.

My temple of death I built on the west of Nile at the opposite of Luxor. It was the biggest death temple in Egypt but it was fully damaged. There remained only two figures of me which were about 20m high, today they are 17.9m high. It are the famous Memnon-colosses, how they were called by the Greek people.

Traces of my residence were found near Malkatta. They found a wall which was the limit of an area about 2260x730m. Later researches showed that it wasnt the wall of the palace but the dam of the man-made lake which the I built for the happiness of Queen Tiye.

As the place for my afterlife I didn't choose the Valley of the Kings but the near valley of the monkeys (so called because of the monkey mummies which were found there). My tomb was found 1824 by G. B. Belzoni. there was only a damaged sarcophagus. The tomb is very deep, there are about 10 rooms. The mummy is in the Egyptian Museum of Cairo.