Amenhotep III: The Pinnacle of Egyptian Prosperity

so hello and welcome to yet another episode of biographics I'm your interim host Carl Smallwood that's Carl with a K Ka a r l not s i m o n because I've seen people mispronouncing it and misspelling it that way which is very strange anyway with that out the way today we're talking about a menp the Magnificent the Pinnacle of Egyptian prosperity and as with all the videos here on biographics this one is based on original script submitted To Us by a member of our writing team that member today being Ru Alexander you can follow them on the social media links below if you are so inclined mine are also down there as are the things you can press that make you know the Channel's numbers go up which means I get paid more money you know like comment subscribe all that good stuff and one final bit of housekeeping before we get into the video itself this video contains a lot of words I was unfamiliar with so I did look up pronunciation guides on things like and then hat or other ancient Egyptian kings and Pharaohs and one thing that made me kind of uncomfortable while I was doing that is I stumbled across an old documentary narrated by a stuffy British man um about the Valley of the Kings and during that they have footage of stuff that's in the Egyptian Museum which the stuffy British narrator refers to as our culture yeah we sure do suck anyway today we are traveling back to the 14th century BC to the New Kingdom of Egypt during the time of the 18th Dynasty this dynasty is a world we had gone to before numerous times it's arguably produced the greatest number of notable rumors from that period several already featured here at biographics with our old host Simon not Carl Simon we're different people you see there's haep SZ the queen of the Pharaoh there's Moos III one of the greatest conquerers that Egypt had ever seen and there's the heretic who cast aside the old gods and worship Aton and of course there's the boy King himself Tuton Caron and then there's also the subject for today am menap he was the father of the forementioned heretic and tot's grandfather Maybe but he was also the pharaoh who brought his kingdom to an unparalleled Apex of international power arguably creating the most prosperous period in Egypt's entire history and thus rightfully earn the Monica of am menp the Magnificent but we can't start there we have to start as we often like to do at the beginning with the menet which literally translates to Ammon is content was born sometime around 1400 BC to Thutmose the four and one of his secondary wives mam we depending on the exact year of his birth his father might not have become Pharaoh yet and was just the Crown Prince at the time while the actual ruling monar was his grandfather and his Nam sake amen II however years later when he actually became Pharaoh am man was proclaimed to be the son of none other than amund the king of the Gods who took the form of thos and impregnate his mother inscriptions at the Temple of luar say this about their romantic encounter she awoke on the account of the Aroma of the god and cried out before him he went to her straight away she rejoiced at the sight of his Beauty and love for him C through her body the palace was flooded with God's Aroma I'm just going to let that sit and let everyone at home figure out what God's Aroma is and what his love was cing through her means words spoken by amund am R of Thieves is the name of the child I have placed in your body he shall exercise the benefit kingship in this whole land he shall rule the two lands like raah for ever so yeah having your dad be the king of the Gods was pretty handy for a menap he had a relatively relaxed childhood spent mostly around the family Palace in a little place called gurob whose ruins lie near modern city of fume he was mainly looked after by the king's Treasurer sobec hotep hail sobec and had been appointed his Guardian meanwhile his father was away on Military matters making sure that Egypt maintained its new found Regional dominance by getting into a few scuffles with some of its neighbors such as matani and Nubia originally amen wasn't meant to become Pharaoh that honor was was supposed to go to th M's eldest son amen hat but he died so young that amen was called up to the plate and then thos himself cashed in his chips in the 10th year of his Reign and am menet was crowned the new Pharaoh cira 1391 BC now most sources seem to agree that he was around 12 years old at this time so it's highly likely that he had a regent who ruled in instead although their name was lost to history soon after taking the throne the boy King got married to his great Royal wife TI over the years am men would take many many other wives most of them princesses from nearby kingdoms but his relationship with ta seem to have been truly special maybe even unique among the Pharaohs of Egypt for starters there did not appear to be any political motivations behind the union sure ta's parents yuu and fuya were wealthy officials and landowners but they were not even of Royal Blood despite this the men had showed them both great care and respect and not only gave them both high ranking positions in his court but even had them both buried in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings and then of course there's ta herself no other queen in Egyptian history as ever figured so prominently into her husband's life there are tons of surviving reliefs inscriptions in tombs and temples and jewelry and Ceramics where her name is featured right there alongside her husbands she was also often depicted with elements of the goddess hathor and sometimes even represented as a sphinx which was typically only a thing for Pharaohs then there statues where amenhotep and TI were shown together and are of equal size which again was not how things were normally done back in ancient Egypt the Pharaoh was always supposed to be bigger and grander than everybody else he was depicted alongside and it seems that a menen had adopted an egalitarian approach that had never been seen before in Egyptian Society up till then and Men did not waste a lot of time once all the traditional duties and ceremonies for the burial of his father were complete he got down to work although to be fair he had been handed quite a cushy gig when am menh had set became Pharaoh his kingdom was rich the Harvest were Bountiful and most importantly of all it was peaceful in fact throughout this entire Reign which lasted almost four decades a rarity for an Egyptian pharaoh am men only had to take part in one military campaign that we're aware of in his fifth regnal year he traveled to Kush where he conquered an alliance of rebelling tribes and took 30,000 prisoners most of the time he refer to use diplomacy especially by just marrying the daughters of neighboring Kings or by using his wealth to Simply buy the Loyalty of those around him both very effective techniques because he did not have to concentrate his time and resources on war a menm could focus on the thing he really cared about building lots and lots of stuff he's widely considered one of the most prolific Builders of ancient Egypt with no other pharaoh leaving behind more tangible proof of his or her existence with a possible exception of Ramsey's the great in fact Ramsey's cheated to get top marks because some of his Works were actually made by am menp Ramsey's just crossed out his predecessor's name and replaced it with his own which was a pretty cheeky thing to do but was relatively common among the Pharaohs in order to build you are going to need materials which is why amen's first major action as Pharaoh was to open several new Limestone quaries and reopen a few older ones that have been abandoned a long time ago with a steady supply of stone on its way the Pharaoh began work on one of the multiple ambitious projects that would consume the greatest part of his Reign carak carak was a large Temple complex built in thieves near modern day city of luxa construction of it been taking place since the Middle Kingdom of ancient Egypt around the 20th century BC and its importance to Egyptian culture grew steadily with the rise of Thieves as a city served as the capital for a lot of the second half of ancient Egypt's history usually splitting this Duty with Memphis Pharaohs were always adding new stuff to carak usually stuff that said how amazing and awesome they were although to give credit to a men the first thing he did at carak was finish the shrine that his father was building when he died after that a menm oversaw extensive refurbishing and Renovations of a temple complex that took decades to complete some areas he redesigned completely and the others had older structures removed and recycled for his own building projects like he literally took other buildings ground them down and then built new buildings out of them never say the Egyptians weren't an industrious people his own greatest contribution to KAC was a 10th pylon meaning a Monumental gateway to a temple which adorned with two giant statues of himself what a baller it said that amen absolutely loved seeing himself in Statue form and who really knows how many he had commissioned during his lifetime but he holds the record for and I quote the faroh with the most surviving statues with approximately 250 to his name that depict a steady progression of the manet's life from his childhood all the way to old age or at least old age in like ancient Egyptian standards he lived to about 50 years old and it's not just buildings that am menp had a thing for he also had a weird obsession with scarabs and while many other pharaohs prefer to inscribe their achievements on Temple walls or stone monuments am men like to write on scarabs and since his Reign hundreds of these things have been found inscribed on their undersiz to let the world know what a menp had been up to each one was sort of like a mini diary only on a Scarab and not a big stone plate as would be common back then for for example there are over 120 surviving scarabs that just talk about the pharaoh's first decade on the throne and they all mention just how great of a hunter and Men attack was and that he killed a reported 102 Lions during one of his hunts there's also a sweeter less lion murder orientated example of a dozen ass so scarabs that describe how a men had gifted his wife an entire Lake in her hometown during his 11th regnar year and then took her on a boat ride on it and if you're wondering how a menet gifted his wife a lake surely the lake was just there no no he had a lake built named it after her and then took her a ride upon it but you know what let's just quote the scarabs shall we his majesty commanded the making of a lake for his great Royal wife Tia long may she live in her hometown it length for 3,700 cubits and its width of 700 cubits his majesty celebrated the Festival of opening on the lake in the third month of inundation day 16 his majesty was Rod in the Royal barge the dazzling sun [Music] disk so enough scarabs for now let's get back to the bigger stuff back in thieves on the East Bank of the nil River besides carak there was another Temple complex called Lua nowadays there's pretty much one a and one b in terms of importance but in a manhep day Lua was still a little wet behind the ears shall we say we don't know for sure when it was first built but the oldest Shrine at the complex dates back to the afor mantion haet suit less than a century before am menet became Pharaoh he was the one who built the core of the temple as well as the great corn a made up of two rows of colossal columns and the birth room which tells the story of how amra was the true father of the menap over the centuries other pharaohs made their own additions to the temple complexes such as to and Kon and most notably Ramsey II and even the Romans got in on it at some point building a fort around the temple during their own era and when amen felt that there wasn't enough room anymore at carak and looks saw for all the things he wanted to build he said screw it and just traveled to the middle of a desert to construct an entirely new complex there as well originally called per high or the house of rejoicing it was later known as malcata and became the pharaoh's permanent residence once the Royal Palace was completed but besides the palace malcata had halls with giant decorated columns luxurious apartments and Villas workshops store rooms administrative officers a workers Village and of course lots and lots of temples and statues so in truth it was more of a small city than a religious complex however it was abandoned almost immediately after amenhotep's death and quickly went to ruin and finally we arrive at the main event the pharaoh's most or inspiring Construction the Mory Temple of am men III this was the grandest structure of its kind ever built in ancient Egypt and it was known quite fittingly as the Mansion of millions of years well befitting of a ruler such as a menh now you might be thinking to yourself why a Mory Temple and not a pyramid right that's the thing Egyptians are known for like the triangles right the tringle what what gives well by the time of a menet giant pyramids were kind of old hats and they' gone out of style by the time of the men's Reign and while yes theid Middle Kingdom did sometimes bury its pharaohs in pyramids these were definitely built on a budget and lacks shall we say the Grandeur of the pyramids we see at Giza by the time of the New Kingdom though the Pharaohs prefer to be buried inside Rock Cut tombs in the Valley of the Kings on the West Bank of the Nile and having a big fancy Mory Temple where people could come and worship them for centuries after they died had become the new trend bring it back to amen he certainly not skimp on his own Mory Temple the first thing that people saw as they approached the complex was the colosi of mnan two giant statues Seated on Thrones each one six sories tall and weighing some 720 tons that guarded the entrance to the temple the structure itself was around 600 M long and 100 m wide and contained hundreds of statues sphinxes and reliefs that detailed the life and accomplishments of the Pharaoh visitors had to enter through three pylons then Traverse a long Corridor that led to an open Solar Courtyard a sanctuary roofed Hall and multiple alts and this would have likely been a jaw-dropping sight to behold but unfortunately amen made one key mistake when building his Temple he placed it too close to the Nile and over the centuries it was subject to frequent floodings one big earthquake in 27 BC and the typical plunderings and recyclings of materials by his immediate successors today the temple lies largely in Ruins and the only thing really left standing are the two colosi of mnon who are still fulfilling their duty of guarding the entrance even after 3,000 years but it's not all bad because modern excavations have Unearthed artifacts and statues that have been buried under tons of soils for literal Millennia so who knows what else they might find in the near future was buried beneath the sand as we know would be pretty obvious by now amen's reputation as a great Builder was well deserved as it was truly his L on detr but being a pharaoh can't be all temples and scarabs as cool as that would be you know you still have a kingdom to run what well you know you're building your temples and carving your wife's name on your scarabs but was mentioned previously when a manent was given the keys to a throne and the executive bathroom Egypt was sitting pretty as the dominant Regional power nobody was really looking to challenge the state as quot okay so the Hittites were recurring thorn in Egypt's side but they too were preoccupied with all things during aep's Reign and it wasn't until a few decades later there would become a serious danger but all the other kings in the area were more likely to write to EMP looking for a handout or marriage Alliance than to start some trouble possibly the first to do so was king shutan of a second matani who married his daughter and I hope I pronounce this correctly kilpper to am menp and was followed by Bab on and hour hour and possibly other kings we don't know about what we do know is that these alliances through marriage were strictly a one-way Street as revealed in the AM letters that recorded correspondence between the Egyptian pharaohs and their Royal neighbors for example letters four and five real discussion between am menp and the Babylonian King at the time where the Egyptian pharaoh requests a wife but refuses to return the favor to Babylon making it clear that and I quote since time IM memorium no daughter of the king of Egypt has ever been given in marriage basically it was another sign that a men had sent was sitting at the head of the table and called all the shots while all the other kings had no choice but to just stand there smile politely and let him you know have sex with their daughters on the other hand Egypt also had vast supplies of gold during The menps Reign and the Pharaoh often sent large amounts of gold as gifts to the other rulers to soothe their bruised Egos and by and large he managed to keep everybody happy so yes he just send like literal wagons load of gold to the other kings so they wouldn't know want to start anything but it wasn't all smooth sailing for our boy am menet because some time during 1365 BC when he was approaching his Landmark 30th year on the throne the Pharaoh suffered a terrible personal tragedy when he lost his eldest son Crown Prince thos just like his own father before him it was pretty clear that am menp had Grand Ambitions for his son and expected that one day he would succeed him as the Pharaoh th MOS was often depicted in official inscriptions alongside his father and was bestowed various honorifics titles and honors and it's worth noting that THM did have siblings and they were rarely if ever mentioned in such inscriptions especially not alongside their illustrious father his death was a shock straight to the heart of the Pharaoh and to his people who by that point had grown pretty accustomed to A Reign defined by peace and prosperity Not Tragedy furthermore thought moses' death forced amep to name his second son who he also called amep as the new Crown Prince and we actually do have a biographics video on amep Jun you can go watch after this if you are so inclined and a cliff notes version is that amep Junior was wasn't great wasn't very popular King he uh well the first thing he did is declared himself The Reincarnation of the son God Aton changed his name from a men attemp to Aken attan um he got rid of the classic Egyptian Pantheon of cool animal headed gods and instead declared that was only one true like Mega God Aton the a disc of sun which is way less cool than like know Anubis and sobec and all those other cool animal-headed Gods but that's a story for another day let's get back to amep senior shall we so after he' named his new successor he did not really have much time to grieve for his favored son as he was getting ready for a rare and Monumental event in the reign of any Pharaoh his first said Festival that said s the said Festival was an important ceremony that celebrated a Pharaoh's long and continued Rule and aimed to renew his strength and keep his reain going the first such Jubilee was commemorated after 30 years on the throne and all subsequent ceremonies occurred every three or four years thereafter this meant that most pharaohs never got one said Festival since they had to have ruled for at least three decades and instead had to settle for the promise of and I quote millions of jubilees in the afterlife amep celebrated three said festivals but obviously the first was the biggest and most important of the bunch in fact it was one of the grandest of all time and the Pharaoh spent an obscene amount of money to erect temples and statues all along the length of the Nile as well as manufacture thousands of pieces of jewelry and ornaments for his ceremony which took place at malcata and less than a year after his third said Festival a men had the third died during his 38th year as Pharaoh close to the age of 50 now normally in a biographics video when the person dies that's when the video ends and I start my Spiel of hey if you enjoyed the video why not leave a like comment below with feedback or suggestions and subscribe for more content like this but when we talk about a pharaoh them dying is not the end because their dead body usually got up to some cool stuff and amena is no exception so yeah as you might expect since amena took the trouble to build the biggest and grandest Mory temple in all the land he was buried in an equally Grand tomb close to it in the valley of Kings designated KV 22 it is in fact the largest tomb in the West Valley and might have been originally intended for thos IV since his name appears on several Foundation inscriptions however amenit probably decided that he liked the two more and laid claim to it since you know his dad wasn't exactly in a position to protest and as mentioned previously as Pharaohs were all deemed to be The Reincarnation of the same God it technically belonged to him the tomb was first spotted by Scholars all the way back during Napoleon's Egyptian Expedition unfortunately since it was easy to find by archaeologist it was also easy to find by lutters so the time like modern man explored it the tomb had been mostly cleaned out probably thousands of years earlier the sarcophagus was gone and the good news was that amen attemp hadn't been insided for quite a while you see alongside a dozen alsoo other mummies he'd be moved to kv35 during the reign of smendes the founder of the 21st dasty kv35 originally the tomb of menp II at a menp grandpa were discovered in 1898 by French egyptologist Victor lorett who likely had quite a shock when he entered the tomb and found a dozen mummies belonging to some of the most important and famous figures of the New Kingdom just sitting there not really doing much he probably went out and bought a lottery ticket immediately afterwards because you just don't get fines like that as an archaeologist and since then we've used modern methods to study am and tet's mummy discovered this surprising truth that people back then weren't all that healthy even if they were supposedly The Reincarnation of a God for example in his final years a menet was notably overweight suffered from arthritis and had really bad teeth probably from all the honey and sugar that he ate as you know a member of royalty nowadays am menh is resting inside the new national museum of Egyptian civilization in Cairo although reminders of his Landmark Reign can still be found not only throughout Egypt but the entire world thanks in part to said Luthers and archaeologist just taking stuff and moving it around to other museums and I believe we do have a video on the um the British museum over on our sister Channel by Geographics that I also hosted and spend most of the run time just like this of yeah yeah British people kind of suck speaking of which if you'd like to follow our author on social media you can do so are the links found below Radu Alexander and I'm sure they'd like to hear they did a good job on this script you can follow me if you are so inclined and you can also like leave comments below for feedback suggestions and just ideas for future videos you can also just ask where the previous host was if that's your thing I'm sorry I I got asked to do this gig and I said yes because I worked behind the scenes 10 years ago and know the owners of the site I'm sorry if I'm not doing a good job I'm trying my best and I'll continue to try my best in future videos which you can see by subscribing for more like this now I'm going to drink this God awful coffee [Music] B