Malkata Palace City
Thebes - The PlacesWho: Built by Pharaoh Amenhotep III for personal use and he is thought to have died here
What: Palace City for all Governance which covered 226,000 square meters. It was the largest Palace City Complex in Egypt
Where: West Bank of Thebes, between the Nile and the Theban Hills
When: Built during the New Kingdom, around year 11 to year 29 of his reign
Why: His Royal Residence and housed at least 2 of the 3 Sed Festival Jubilees that the Pharaoh celebrated during his reign
What is there?
- The structures identified so far inside the Palace complex:
- Several Residential Palaces
- Temple of Amun and the Ceremonial Lake
- Festival Hall and Elite Villas
- Houses for the relatives of the Royal Family
- Apartments for Attendants
- Desert altar
- Canals connecting the complex to the Nile
- Villages appeared outside boundary walls and became abutted to the city
To learn more about the Palace City at Malkata in Thebes, choose one of the images below:
Birket Habu
Pharaoh Amenhotep III ordered the excavation and filling of a Harbour with a Port attached to it which is fed using Canals from the Nile for access to and from. The Harbour itself is extensive and is roughly. . . . .
Palace of Amenhotep III
Pharaoh Amenhotep III built the Palace for his own, and his family’s, personal use. Constructed during the . . . . .
Temple of Amun
The Temple is located to the north of the Palace itself and has an unusual layout compared to other New Kingdom Amun Temples . . . . .
Sed Festivals in Malkata
Pharaoh Amenhotep III like many of his predecessors and successors would have looked to celebrate his Heb Sed Festival to rejuvenate his reign and celebrate the Pharaoh’s revitalisation as a living deity . . . . .
The People at Malkata
Who lived and worked in Malkata?
The Pharaoh, his Great Royal Wife, their family, the Viziers, the Priests . . . . .
Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III
Pharaoh Amenhotep III died when he was roughly 50 years old, after ruling for approx. 40 years.
For his own remembrance and as somewhere for his Cult to be celebrated after his demise he created not only his Tomb in the Valley of the Kings but also the largest Mortuary Complex known in the Theban Necropolis.
