New Kingdom
Amenhotep II (Aakheperure)
18th Dynasty · 1550-1295 BCE
Open full-size illustration →Source: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Background
Amenhotep II, throne name Aakheperure, inherited the vast empire built by his father Thutmose III and worked forcefully to hold it together, becoming known both for genuine military ruthlessness against rebellious vassals and for a personal cult of athletic prowess emphasized in his own inscriptions. His tomb is also unusually significant archaeologically, since it was found essentially undisturbed and later used to hide a cache of other royal mummies. Research: UCL Digital Egypt; Metropolitan Museum.
Dynastic chronology: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Full profile
The athletic king
Amenhotep II inherited a massive and wealthy empire. He was famous for his physical prowess and athletic achievements, regularly boasting about his skill in archery, running, and rowing. He conducted several brutal military campaigns into the Levant to crush local rebellions and firmly secure the borders established by his father. He was incredibly ruthless with his enemies, famously hanging the bodies of defeated Syrian princes from the walls of Thebes.
An undisturbed tomb and a royal mummy cache
When the French Egyptologist Victor Loret discovered Amenhotep II's tomb, KV35, in the Valley of the Kings in 1898, he found the king's mummy still resting in its own sarcophagus inside its original burial chamber, a level of preservation without parallel among royal New Kingdom tombs found before Tutankhamun's in 1922. Centuries earlier, Twenty-First Dynasty priests had also used the tomb as a secondary hiding place for a cache of other royal mummies pulled from their original, robbed tombs elsewhere in the valley, including those of Thutmose IV, Amenhotep III, Merenptah, and several later Ramesside kings, reburied in side chambers alongside Amenhotep II himself. The tomb therefore preserved not only its intended occupant but an entire cross-section of New Kingdom royalty rescued from tomb robbers.
Sources for this profile
- Baker, D. D. (2008). The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume 1. Stacey International.
- Shaw, I. (Ed.). (2000). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press.
- University College London. Kings of the New Kingdom.
- Reeves, N., & Wilkinson, R. H. (1996). The Complete Valley of the Kings. Thames & Hudson.
- Dodson, A., & Hilton, D. (2004). The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson.
The complete, APA-formatted reference list is on the Academic Sources & Bibliography page.