Select Page

Pharaoh Amenhotep I

The Pharaohs - The People

“Amun is Satisfied”, “Bull who conquers the lands” and “He who inspires great terror”, was the son of Pharaoh Ahmose I and Queen Ahmose-Nefertari. He ruled from 1514 to 1493 BC and had several children, but no male heir survived to inherit his Throne which he passed to his General Tuthmose. 

During his lifetime and having inherited Egypt’s strengthened government, the Pharaoh was able to look to expanding Egypt’s territories to the Third Cataract of the Nile in the south, campaigning in Syria and gathering the traditional “tributes” from Egypt’s Vassal States. With his mother he opened the Artisans Village at Deir el Medina which was successfully inhabited for hundreds of years.

According to Legend, the Water Clock was invented by Amenemheb, Pharaoh Amenhotep I’s Court Astronomer. Previously exact timings were looser in their interpretation as the Egyptian hour was measured as One Twelfth of the night, but when the nights were slightly shorter in the summer then these Water Clocks could be accurately fine-tuned to measure the hours correctly.

Literature flourished under his reign and two now well-known books were published at the time, the Book of What is in the Underworld and the Ebers Papyrus which dealt with medicine of the time.

Pharaoh’s architect expanded the Temple of Karnak including a Sacred Barque Chapel for God Amun from Alabaster stone; a Temple in Nubia; other buildings in Elephantine, Kom Ombo, Abydos and at the Temple of Nekhbet.

He began the trend to disengage his Tomb from his Mortuary Temple, bringing in the development of Rock Cut Tombs in the Theban Valleys over any Pyramidal style Necropoli. On his death Pharaoh Amenhotep I, was deified as “Amenhotep of the Town”, “Amenhotep Beloved of Amun”, and “Amenhotep of the Forecourt”, and celebrated at the Artisans Village at Deir el Medina, as was his mother, Queen Ahmose-Nefertari.

Pharaoh’s Tomb has never been located but his body was found with so many of his counterparts in the Mummy Cache at TT320 at Deir el Bahri.

To learn more about Pharaoh Amenhotep I’s life, click on the relevant image below:

Deir el Bahri
Karnak Temple
Valley of the Kings
Artisans Village, Deir el Medina
error

Enjoying this Website? Please spread the word :)

Instagram