himself. He was king of kings, ruler of rulers,
Herupar excellence, and he who created the foun-
dations of the land. Never before had the world
seen such absolute power, such audacious author-
ity, such exuberant wealth, and so much elegance
as Amenhotep III assembled at Waset in the name
of service to the God Amen. It would be about
1,500 years later and the time of the Roman cae-
sars before this type of accumulation in the name
of conquest would be seen again.
Amenhotep III married a young commoner
named Tiye. She was the daughter of Tuya and
Yuya. Her father, Yuya, was a lieutenant general
of chariotry in the Egyptian army. Tiye became,
notwithstanding her ordinary origin, the Great
King’s wife, the head of all of the king’s spouses,
and one of the greatest power wielders in Egypt’s
history. She would ultimately be the wife of a
king, the mother of a king, the aunt of a queen,
and the grandmother of a king. Her titles multi-
plied during her lifetime. She was the heiress,
greatly praised, mistress of all lands who clings to
the king, lady of rejoicing, mistress of upper and
lower Kemet, and lady of the two lands.
The beautiful Tiye was queen at the height of
Egypt’s power. Its boundaries of influence
stretched from central Sudan to northwest Iraq.
Her husband, Amenhotep III, was no stranger to
the ladies of those lands, marrying Babylonian,
Nubian, Mitannian, and Syrian princesses.
Although he may have been kept busy making
children or counting children, it would only be the
six children of Tiye, the great king’s wife, who
were targeted for the succession. Four were girls
and two were boys.
The oldest girl, Sat-Amen, seemed to be her
father’s favorite, and you could almost hear him
say during this most patriarchal of ages, “I wish
she had been a boy.” She had the spunk, intelli-
gence, wit, matter of factness, understanding, per-
sonal strength, and insight that he wished for his
boys. Soon Amenhotep III elevated her to the rank
of the great king’s wife like her mother, giving her
authority and influence in the inner circle of the
kingship. The eldest boy, Tuthmoses, had been
slated for the kingship, but, soon after being ele-
vated to the rank of priest of Ptah at Men-nefer, he
died and the way was prepared for Amenhotep IV
to become king of Kemet.
Amenhotep IV in AscendancyThus, in the fifth month (January 1377) of
what had been the 38th year of the reign of
Amenhotep III, his second son, Amenhotep IV,
ascended the great Heru seat as the Per-aa of
Egypt, becoming the holder of the throne of the
living king of kings, lord of lords, ruler of rulers,
mighty in power, given life, health, and stability
for ever and ever. His coronation name would be
Neferkheperura, that is, the transformations of Ra
are beautiful. He would add the epithetwa-n-ra
(unique one of Ra) to the coronation name. He
would take thenesut bityname as king of upper
and lower Kemet.
Amenhotep IV, following his father, was
crowned at Karnak, the chief place of the God
Amen, which means that he was not in open
revolt against the priesthood of Amen at the time
of his coronation. However, shortly afterward,
Amenhotep IV began the gradual process of
replacing Amen with images of the deity Aten in
the construction of temples and chapels. The so-
calledtalatatblocks, decorated with a lively artis-
tic style, began to define the early technique of the
artisans of Amenhotep IV. A graffiti at Aswan
written by Bek, the chief sculptor for Amenhotep
IV, claimed that the king taught them the new,
realistic technique. The 12,000talatatblocks that
the Franco-Egyptian Center for the Karnak
Temples extracted from the demolished ninth
pylon set up by Horemhab give us the best exam-
ple of Amenhotep IV’s art style for the few years
he was in Karnak.The Transformation of the King
Already by the second year into his reign, the king
was questioning the norms of art, religion, and
philosophy of the society. The king looked to his
first jubilee when he would display his prowess
and show that he was still fit to lead. In his second
year, the idea of ansdfestival crystallized in his
mind, and Amenhotep IV, moving rapidly, wanted
to set the time to coincide with his third anniver-
sary of accession to the throne. The repairs and
decorations that he completed during this early
period would eventually be eradicated or his name
eliminated.30 Akhenaten