Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- PROLOGUE The Birthplace of Amenhotep III
- 1 An Heir Unapparent
- 2 The Making of an Heir Apparent
- 3 Thutmose IV and King's Son Amenhotep in Nubia
- 4 Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!
- 5 Establishing Divine Might and Divine Right
- 6 “The First Campaign of Victory”: Amenhotep III's River War
- 7 The Spoils of War
- 8 The King's First Two Wives
- 9 The Lost Years
- 10 Bringing Heaven to Earth to See the Living Gods: Building the King's Religious Monuments at Thebes
- 11 Per Hai (“The House of Rejoicing”) at Malkata
- 12 Beneath The Divine Falcon's Wings a New World Takes Shape
- 13 The First Jubilee Festival (Heb-Sed)
- 14 Raising Up Old Officials and Buying a New Bride
- 15 International Trade in Princesses and Other Goods
- 16 A Mixed Forecast: Dazzling Sun and Dark Clouds
- 17 The Last Hurrah
- 18 Whose Heaven Is It? The Reign of Akhenaten and Beyond
- EPILOGUE One God Left Standing
- Notes and References
- Glossary of Ancient Personal Names
- Bibliography
- Index
10 - Bringing Heaven to Earth to See the Living Gods: Building the King's Religious Monuments at Thebes
(Reign of Amenhotep III, Years 20–29, ca. 1372–1363 B.C.)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- PROLOGUE The Birthplace of Amenhotep III
- 1 An Heir Unapparent
- 2 The Making of an Heir Apparent
- 3 Thutmose IV and King's Son Amenhotep in Nubia
- 4 Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!
- 5 Establishing Divine Might and Divine Right
- 6 “The First Campaign of Victory”: Amenhotep III's River War
- 7 The Spoils of War
- 8 The King's First Two Wives
- 9 The Lost Years
- 10 Bringing Heaven to Earth to See the Living Gods: Building the King's Religious Monuments at Thebes
- 11 Per Hai (“The House of Rejoicing”) at Malkata
- 12 Beneath The Divine Falcon's Wings a New World Takes Shape
- 13 The First Jubilee Festival (Heb-Sed)
- 14 Raising Up Old Officials and Buying a New Bride
- 15 International Trade in Princesses and Other Goods
- 16 A Mixed Forecast: Dazzling Sun and Dark Clouds
- 17 The Last Hurrah
- 18 Whose Heaven Is It? The Reign of Akhenaten and Beyond
- EPILOGUE One God Left Standing
- Notes and References
- Glossary of Ancient Personal Names
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
“Never Before had the Like Been Done”
The second half of Amenhotep III's reign was markedly different from the first. The days of mere earthly heroics were now irrelevant because the king had survived mortal combat with the forces of nature – with the very gods themselves. Triumph manifested itself in a grand building program the length of the Nile Valley, especially at its fulcrum, Thebes (Maps 4 and 5). Euphoria inspired this work, and divine justification fueled it.
Like many other pharaohs, Amenhotep III claimed that “never before had the like been done,” but in this king's case, it was true. On the east bank of Thebes, Luxor Temple blossomed from a small shrine into a magnificent edifice. A mile away, grand Karnak turned away from the river and began to stretch out along a new axis running parallel to it. Neighboring Mut Temple, the royal alma mater, gained beautiful statuary. Processional ways leading to and from the temples unrolled between rows of great ram-headed sphinxes with images of the king held firmly in their forelegs’ embrace. Across the river, the project at Kom el Hettan continued to unfold ever larger. In Lower and Middle Egypt, old shrines at sites such as Athribis, Bubastis, Heliopolis, and Hermopolis were augmented either architecturally or sculpturally or both. In Upper Egypt and the Sudan, sanctuaries were revised and redecorated, while new ones were conceived and built from scratch, complete with beautifully carved, enormous sculptures.
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- Information
- Amenhotep IIIEgypt's Radiant Pharaoh, pp. 120 - 147Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012