During the 14th century BC, ancient Egypt was ruled by Pharaoh Amenhotep the Third,
who is widely recognized as a master of diplomacy.
Through his cunning exploitation of international greed for gold, Amenhotep not only maintained the
vast empire he inherited, but also elevated it to a level never before seen.
His incredibly successful reign rendered him one of the most admired and beloved pharaohs
in ancient Egyptian history, earning him the name “Amenhotep the Magnificent”!
Amenhotep, whose name means “Amun is content,” was born in 1401 BC to the rather insignificant
pharaoh, Thutmose the Fourth. On the other hand, his great-grandfather,
Thutmose the Third, was one of the most notable pharaohs in ancient Egyptian history
for his efforts to greatly expand the empire through countless military campaigns.
As crown prince, the young Amenhotep was destined to inherit this vast empire.
The foundations for his eventual diplomatic success were laid early
in his childhood through a rigorous education in mathematics, reading, and writing.
Literacy was a highly valued skill, mastered by only two percent of the Egyptian population.
In addition to learning how to write Egyptian hieroglyphs, Amenhotep was also required to
master Mesopotamian cuneiform, which was the primary language of diplomacy.
Education at the royal court was rigid and adherence to discipline was of utmost importance,
as evidenced by an instructional text dating to the late New Kingdom period, which states:
“Do not be idle, or waste your time. Do not give yourself over to pleasures, that will be your ruin.
Write with your hand, read with your mouth and seek advice from those who are wiser than you. A scribe
skilled in his calling, a master of education, is most fortunate. Persevere and spend not a moment
in idleness or you will be beaten. A boy’s ear is on his back; he only listens when he is beaten.
Take these words to heart for your own good.” Upon the sudden death of his father in 1388 BC,
the young prince was proclaimed Pharaoh Amenhotep the Third at the young age of 12,
becoming the ninth ruler of the 18th dynasty. Much of what we know about him comes from
a series of commemorative scarabs that he commissioned during his reign.
Scarabs are pieces of steatite stone carved into the shape of the sacred dung beetle
native to the deserts of Egypt. Symbolizing Khepri, the Egyptian god of
creation and rebirth, scarabs began to be worn as talismans during the Middle Kingdom period.
Amenhotep used scarabs in an entirely different manner, by engraving them with inscriptions that
depicted important events during his reign and having them distributed throughout Egypt.
Egyptologists consider them to be among some of the first news
telegrams in recorded history. An example is this commemorative scarab
announcing Amenhotep’s marriage to a commoner named Tiye upon his ascension to the throne.
Queen Tiye was only six years old when she became the pharaoh’s Great Royal Wife and she would go
on to become one of the most significant women in ancient Egyptian history.
As a young pharaoh, Amenhotep was taught to drive the mighty war chariot
and handle a bow and arrow with great proficiency.
A second series of commemorative scarabs depict the young Amenhotep using his bow
and arrows to kill a total of 102 lions. Lion hunting was regarded as an effective
way to demonstrate strength during times of peace when military battles were scarce.
However, during his fifth year in power, several riots broke out in Nubia, a region to the south
of Egypt rich in natural resources. Rebels were terrorizing the kingdom’s trade
routes, which called for the 16-year-old pharaoh’s immediate attention.
Amenhotep led an army into Nubia and swiftly crushed the rebellion, bringing a total of
30,000 captives back to Egypt. This would stand as the only military
campaign of his entire reign, but would go on to prove instrumental
in his eventual diplomatic success. With Nubia under control, Egypt had access
to massive deposits of minerals such as gold, malachite, galena, and copper carbonate, which
were vital to the empire's thriving economy. Although Thutmose the Third considerably expanded
Egypt’s territories and brought it to a position of predominance, many surrounding kingdoms were
eagerly awaiting the opportunity to shift the balance of power in their favor.
Egypt’s greatest rivals at the time were the kingdoms of the Mittani, the Hittites,
the Assyrians, and the Babylonians. Amenhotep the Third was notorious for the use
of marriage as a diplomatic strategy. During his 10th year on the throne,
he commissioned a third series of commemorative scarabs that announced
his marriage to Princess Gilukhepa, who was the daughter of the King of Mittani.
The scarabs record the princess’ arrival with an entourage of 317 women intended as
additions to Amenhotep’s personal harem. This is when the pharaoh chose to leverage his
hoard of Nubian gold by sending solid gold statues as wedding gifts to the King of the Mitanni.
Amenhotep would go on to turn this strategic maneuver into a frequent habit.
Over time, a rumor spread amongst Egypt's neighbors that the empire had a miraculous
abundance of the precious metal. One particular letter from this time reads:
“Gold is like the sand in Egypt, you simply gather it up.”
Foreign kings perceived this to be a tremendous opportunity to finance
their own ventures at home. Eventually, these foreign kings were
willing to trade almost anything to obtain more gold, even their own daughters.
By indebting them through financial dependence and marital obligations, Amenhotep gained
a significant edge over his adversaries without ever resorting to violence.
The pharaoh would go on to offer marriage proposals to any ruler that he believed
might one day pose a threat to Egypt. He successfully married the daughters of
the Hittite and Assyrian rulers, along with the sister and daughter of the King of Babylon,
Kadashman-Enlil the First. The communication between Amenhote
and the Babylonian king is inscribed in the famous Amarna Letters.
Engraved in cuneiform script with messages between the rulers, these clay tablets were worn around
the necks of the kings’ closest confidants and transported across thousands of miles.
The royal couriers often traveled through hostile territory for weeks
at a time and due to the highly sensitive material contained within the letters,
ensuring their safe passage was critical. Rulers provided their messengers with certificates
granting diplomatic immunity, which guaranteed their safety during these dangerous journeys.
The Amarna Letters offer unique insight into Amenhotep's diplomatic prowess and his
position of supremacy over foreign rulers. In this letter, King Kadashman-Enlil of Babylon,
whose sister was already married to Amenhotep, sought to obtain additional gold from the pharaoh, writing:
“My daughters who are married to neighboring kings, if my messengers go there
to speak with them, they send me a greeting gift. But my sister with you is poor.”
Amenhotep humorously replied to the king by writing:
“Should your sister select some gift, I will send it to you! But it's a fine thing to give away your
daughters just for the sake of acquiring a nugget of gold from your neighbors!”
The Babylonian king even daringly asked the pharaoh
to send him an Egyptian princess to marry. Amenhotep firmly refused his request, writing:
“From time immemorial, no daughter of the King of Egypt has ever been given to anyone!”
Kadashman-Enlil grew desperate enough to suggest that a substitute Egyptian woman
be sent instead, writing: "Someone else’s grown-up beautiful daughter must be available.
So send me a beautiful woman as if she were your own daughter and who will say,
She is not the pharaoh's daughter?’” Amenhotep was not only insistent in his refusal,
but proceeded to turn the tables on the Babylonian king by instead demanding that he be given his
daughter’s hand in marriage, which he obediently accepted, writing:
"My daughters being available, I will not refuse one to you… Now as to the gold I wrote to you about, please send me whatever is
on hand or as much as possible." In fact, Amenhotep deemed himself the
only ruler in the world worthy of marrying Egyptian princesses.
This belief prompted the pharaoh to wed two of his own daughters, named Sitamun and Iset.
It is unkown whether Amenhotep fathered any children with them, but Egyptologists believe
that the pharaoh’s intention was to prevent foreign ruling families from ever gaining a
future claim to the Egyptian throne. The pharaoh’s skillful exploitation of
his rivals’ lust for gold led to numerous exotic goods pouring into his empire.
Egypt grew exceedingly wealthy as foreign kingdoms supplied huge quantities of wine,
horses, copper, and precious stones. Around the same time, the empire was experiencing
record harvests, which the Egyptian people viewed as a direct result of the pharaoh's divine power
to bestow fertility upon the land. The increased stability allowed Amenhotep
to devote his time to the arts and the construction of some of the finest works
in all of ancient Egyptian history. This scarab was distributed throughout
Egypt to announce the building of a mile-long artificial lake in honor
of his Great Royal Wife, Queen Tiye. Its waterways were cleverly built to connect
the royal residence with the Nile River, allowing easy access for visitors.
An architectural masterpiece, it was designed to ensure that fertile mud remained around the lake
following the annual flooding of the Nile. The pharaoh’s unparalleled construction output
is often attributed to the assistance of his most trusted confidant, who held
a similar name: Amenhotep, Son of Hapu. The ruler appointed him as his personal scribe
and architect, and entrusted him with managing most construction projects, including sections
of the temples at Karnak and Luxor. Amenhotep granted his architect, Son of Hapu,
the rare honor of building his own mortuary temple alongside his, which is a testament
to the high esteem that he held him in. Similar to the 27th century BC pyramid builder
Imhotep, a sizable cult following developed around the Son of Hapu, worshiping him as a
god of healing for over three centuries. Imhotep and the Son of Hapu are the only two
known Egyptian commoners to ever be deified following their deaths.
Amenhotep was renowned for keeping detailed records of his reign as pharaoh, but mysteriously,
all his construction projects and documentation efforts were put on an eight-year hold.
During this hiatus, he chose instead to commission the production of over 700 statues dedicated
to the Egyptian goddess of war and healing, Sekhmet, who was believed to not only cause
plagues, but to end them as well. This has led Egyptologists to speculate
that the empire was experiencing a severe plague at the time.
The excessive number of statues may have been Amenhotep’s attempt to appease Sekhmet’s wrath,
in hopes that the goddess would lift the curse. It is believed that the pharaoh retreated with
Queen Tiye to their royal palace by the artificial lake to survive the crisis.
Amenhotep's devoutness was evident, but unlike earlier pharaohs, he emphasized his
loyalty to the sun god Aten in particular. This led him to establish a new cult dedicated
exclusively to Aten, aiming to elevate the deity within the Egyptian pantheon.
As Amenhotep grew older, his health deteriorated dramatically as he suffered from dental decay,
arthritis, and obesity. According to this Amarna letter,
King Tushratta of Mitanni sent a statue of the Hurrian goddess of healing, Šauška,
to aid with the pharaoh’s failing health. The letter reads: “Now I herewith send her,
and she is on her way. May Šauška, the mistress of heaven, protect us,
my brother and me, 100,000 years, and may our mistress grant both of us great joy.”
It was in the best interest of foreign kings for Amenhotep to recover due to the uncertainty as to
whether his successor would continue supplying them with large quantities of gold.
After a lengthy reign of 38 years, Amenhotep the Third died in 1351 BC at the age of 50 and
was entombed in the Valley of the Kings. Amenhotep and Queen Tiye had only one surviving
son, who was given the name Amenhotep the Fourth upon ascending the throne, but would go on to
change it to Akhenaten and become notorious for radicalizing his father’s worship of Aten.
Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti declared Aten to be the only god worthy of worship and banned
the veneration of all other gods, including the central Egyptian deity, Amun-Ra.
The new pharaoh inherited the empire at its greatest height, but lacked his father’s
talent for leadership and diplomacy. Egypt's hegemony over foreign kingdoms
rapidly deteriorated during Akhenaten’s reign, resulting in an abrupt end to the
unprecedented stability that his father had worked so tirelessly to maintain.
Amenhotep went on to become so revered by future generations that it is theorized
that the Hebrew Bible’s story of King Solomon was based on the pharaoh's
life due to several striking similarities. In the story, King Solomon inherited a vast empire
stretching from the Nile River to the Euphrates River, accumulated great wealth and wisdom,
devoted his efforts to impressive building projects, and possessed a large harem filled
with the daughters of foreign kings. Through ingenious strategy and calculated
diplomacy, Amenhotep the Third brought Egypt to its greatest heights, leading
future generations to forever remember him as “Amenhotep the Magnificent”!
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