Horemheb (Djeserkheperure)

The military reformer

Horemheb was a commoner who rose to become the supreme commander of the Egyptian armed forces. After Ay's brief reign, Horemheb finally secured the throne. He believed the religious upheavals of the Amarna period had severely weakened Egypt. He acted ruthlessly to restore strict law and order, issuing the "Great Edict of Horemheb" to aggressively root out government corruption with punishments that included exile and facial mutilation.

Erasing the Amarna period

He held a deep contempt for the Atenist religion and the rulers associated with it. Horemheb systematically dismantled Akhenaten's temples, smashed statues of Nefertiti, and physically chiseled the names of Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, and Ay off public monuments. He removed them entirely from the official king lists, rewriting history to make his reign appear as the direct continuation of Amenhotep III.

Securing the succession

Horemheb ruled for 28 years but failed to produce a male heir. To ensure stability, he appointed his trusted general, Paramessu, to succeed him. Paramessu would take the throne as Ramesses I, officially ending the 18th Dynasty and establishing the 19th Dynasty.

Two tombs and a queen who may have died in childbirth

While still a general under Tutankhamun, Horemheb had already built himself an elaborate tomb at Saqqara, only to abandon it for a new royal tomb, KV57, once he became king. The Saqqara tomb was never used for his own burial, but excavations there in the 1970s uncovered the remains of his wives Mutnodjmet and Amenia, along with the bones of a newborn or unborn infant found alongside Mutnodjmet, suggesting she may have died in pregnancy or childbirth. Since Horemheb left no surviving son, this personal tragedy fed directly into the succession crisis that his chosen heir, Ramesses I, was appointed to resolve.