The Building Program of Amenhotep III
"It pleased his majesty's heart to make very great monuments, the likes of which had not existed since the beginning of the two lands."
A major part of a Pharaoh’s reign was to promote his power, wealth and his connection to the Gods. A Pharaoh was not considered as such by his people without this form of propaganda; these building projects would show the strength of their Pharaoh as a leader of the Empire. “Amenhotep, relieved of the need to fund extravagant military campaigns, put his resources to good use, building at all the principal Egyptian sites and investing in a vast number of colossal images of himself.” (Joyce Tyldesley, the Private Lives of the Pharaohs, 2000.) With the prosperity of Egypt as it was, the Pharaoh had the time and wealth to spend on the most expansive and magnificent of all building projects of the pharaohs in Egyptian history. Amenhotep III’s major achievements in his extensive building program were: The Temple of Luxor, the third pylon at Karnak, His mortuary temple and the palace at Malkata. All of these monuments demonstrate the skill of art and craftsmanship during his reign. Although many of his structures were destroyed by other Pharaoh(so that they could make their own claim throughout time), the remains left behind and a black granite stela issued by the King still show and detail how beautiful these magnificence monuments would have been when they were first built. There were four main features to Amenhotep’s building program: they would be of mammoth size/scale, have a copious amount of rich goods used, the highest standard of quality design and the workmanship would have to be exact to both the King’s and Amenhotep’s, son of Hapu, decisions. The temple of Luxor is considered to be the greatest of Amenhotep’s building achievements. The temple was to mark the celebration of the Opet festival, a religious festival which brought together the Theban trinity of Amun, Mut and Khonsu. This building was connected by an avenue of stone to its counter-part, the temple at Karnak. This temple can give evidence of the beginning of the solar worship that followed in the reign of Akhenaten as the temple was fitted, on the Pharaoh’s orders, with a “solar court” which opened to the sky for participants to carry out their worship to the sun. This temple was described in the black granite stela in his mortuary temple: “… of fine sandstone, wide, very great and exceedingly beautiful. Its walls are of fine gold, its pavements of silver. All its gates are worked with the pride of lands. Its pylons reach to the sky, its flagpoles to the stars.” This temple was also important for the Pharaoh to show his great connection with the gods. The pharaoh depicts his “divine birth” with his mother being offered the ankh, the sign of life, by Amun-Re; Amenhotep used this not as a way of justifying his rule but proclaiming his status and power as a God himself. |
The Pharaoh wished to build a grand entrance to the Temple of Amun at Karnak; this was to have two pylon’s flanking the entrance and was “to be the final western façade of the temple.” (Pamela Bradley, Ancient Egypt:
Reconstructing the Past, 1999) The King had a man-made canal built from the Nile to the temple’s gateway. The pylon was described in the stela: “worked with gold throughout, with the God’s shade in the likeness of a ram, inlaid with real lapis lazuli (blue semi-precious stone) and worked with gold and costly stones. The like has never been made. Its pavement was made pure with silver, the portal in its front firmly set; (there are) stelae of lapis lazuli, one on each side. Its twin towers reached to the sky, like the four supports of heaven.” Amenhotep III’s mortuary temple is believed to have been the most impressive of all; however, all that remains of it now are two Colossi of Memnon, which signify its grandeur. The description given to the mortuary temple from the great building stela, gives some clue as to how extravagant this temple was: “fine white sandstone, wrought with gold throughout; its floor is adorned with silver, all its portals with electrum… it is numerous in royal statues of Elephantine granite, of costly gritstone, of every splendid costly stone, established as everlasting works. Their stature shines more than the heavens; their rays are in the faces (of men) like the sun, when he shines early in the morning.” (Quoted by J.H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, volume II) This temple was probably the largest ever created and was a centre of not just Pharaoh Worship but also of trade: “Its storehouse is filled with male and female slaves, with children of the princes of all the countries of the captivity of his majesty. Its storehouses contain all good things, whose number is not known. It is surrounded with settlements of Syrians, colonised with children of princes, its cattle are like the sand of the shore, they make up millions.” Amenhotep III moved his residence from Memphis to Thebes; this is where he built his own palace- “The Radiance of the Aten,” later to become “The House of Rejoicing.”This palace is more commonly known as the palace at Malkata. This palace was the epitome of elegance. Built on 32 hectares on the west bank of the Nile, it comprised of 4 separate palaces that served different purposes, one for the harem (wives residence), one for the officials and administration of his court, one for the Pharaohs personal apartments, and one for the quarters of the slaves and stewards and a temple of Amen. Although this palace was more extensive than previous palaces, the decorations were of a more traditional nature than his other building projects, with wall depictions of nature and leisure activities. Amenhotep III contributed to Egyptian society the grandest and most monumental building program in Egyptian history, certainly his greatest achievement and biggest contribution. |