Amenhotep I is a great king of ancient Egypt

Amenhotep I is a great king of ancient Egypt
Amenhotep I is a great king of ancient Egypt

 
The history of ancient Egypt is an important part of the history of the world, especially ancient history, where we find many great events in ancient Egypt, as well as kings and pharaohs who changed ancient history, especially in the modern state of ancient Egypt, including Amenhotep I of the 18th dynasty, where we review more information in this article
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We mentioned above that “Ahmose” the first had many children from his many wives, and the most fertile of them, as we know, were his first wife and his sister, “Nefertari”; As she gave birth to him at least six children, and they were the legitimate children from whom the heir to the throne was elected, and the eldest of the children of “Ahmose” is apparently Prince “Saba Eri”, and he bore all the titles that qualified him for the throne, but his death was urgent and he In his youth, the heir to the throne became his brother, Amenhotep.

 When “Ahmose” the first met his death, his son “Amenhotep” the first was still young and had not reached the age of men to assume the throne himself, so “Nefertari” took the reins of power in her hand, and became the regent on the throne, as did her mother, “Aahhotep” with “Ahmose.” The first is as previously mentioned, and it is not surprising that we find this activity on the part of “Nefertari”; As we have come to know that she was a person of great activity during the reign of her first husband, “Ahmose”, and she is undoubtedly considered the second of the queens who - with their sacred and legitimate right - did not sit idle in their own backyard, but rather took upon themselves the burdens and tasks of the king, claiming equality for themselves. superiority - with their titles - over their husbands and children in ruling the country; We are not surprised if we see Queen Ahhotep, who had reached a very old age, now playing her role behind the scenes in tempting Nefertari to take the reins of affairs in her hands. To be the guardian of the throne of her young son, as she did before her with “Ahmose” the first. On her coffin, as previously mentioned.

How was Amenhotep How was he a great king?

Wars of Amenhotep I

It seems that the first campaign undertaken by “Amenhotep” the first was against the country of “Kush”, as was previously said about that when talking about the translation of “Ahmose” son of “Our Father”. This naval officer says that he defeated the enemy and returned to Egypt victoriously. As for Asia, we do not know that he waged wars there. However, it is possible that this pharaoh tried throughout his reign to follow his father's colonial policy. In fact, we find in an inscription dated to the second year of the reign of Thutmose I that his state extended from Tempus (in upper Nubia) to the Euphrates River, and we have nothing to doubt this statement, just as it is not reasonable to The Egyptians have gone all this distance in the first year of Thutmose's first reign. Indeed, that progress must be attributed to the first reign of Amenhotep. And since the documents lack us to know the source of this progress in the Egyptian conquests during the reign of each of these two kings, it is very likely that the establishment of the empire is attributed to the rule of “Amenhotep” the First, whose rule was relatively long.

As for the campaign that the pharaoh is said to have launched against the Lubyans (?), it was mentioned in the translation of the life of “Ahmose Bennekhbet”; Where he says: I accompanied again the late king of Upper Egypt and the sea, "Zeser Kare" (Amenhotep the First), and I brought him from the north of "Yamu" belonging to the fields of "Kahk" three hands. Professor Zita said that these Kahk fields are an unknown place, possibly in the northwest of Egypt. He also says: The “Yamu fields” may be one of the oases located in the Lubia desert. Mariut” and “Amun Oasis”, and they must have boldly attacked the western provinces of the delta, and the Pharaoh organized a campaign against them to commemorate his victory by making a small plaque of wood, on which we find the victorious king waving a sword in his hand at the enemy, who was lying on the ground at his feet.” 

It seems that Amenhotep the First's military actions stopped at this point. As we have no evidence of any other victories that he may have achieved during his long reign, however, this did not prevent his contemporaries from celebrating him as a victorious conquering pharaoh. As we see him depicted on a small panel of wood preserved in the Louvre Museum, as he happily beats the princes of foreign countries,  as we see him in another scene standing in his chariot ready to chase two enemies or mount them, and he caught them while they were in a state of fainting. The scenes that reached us from his era indicate that he was a skilled hunter. For example, we find him seizing a lion by its tail, and he raised it in the blink of an eye into space before killing it.

There is no doubt that the Egyptian country was in need of a period of rest, and the disinclination to pursue wars in order to heal from the wounds inflicted by the long period of wars that the country suffered during the reign of his father and his predecessor with the Hyksos, and whether Amenhotep wanted wars due to his inclination to them, or For political reasons, the generation in which he lived benefited from his hatred of wars, just as the previous generation benefited from his father’s love, “Ahmose,” to launch a raid against the enemy and defeat him. It is not surprising, then, that we see cities during the era of “Amenhotep” have restored their normal life, and agriculture has grown in them. Trade flourished. Which increased the wealth of Egypt and made it fully prepared to carry out its next conquests at the hands of its brave pharaohs.

What was King Amenhotep I famous for?

Amenhotep I and the great architecture

The love of huge buildings was not so widespread during the reign of this pharaoh that it exhausted the state's finances. This is because the economic situation had not reached a far level of prosperity, yet we find many traces of this pharaoh throughout the country. In "Ibrim" we find a document indicating that he had carved a cave in the mountains of "Ibrim" in the country of Nubia and dedicated it to the goddess "Sat", one of the gods of the waterfall.

And in “Karnak” a “gate” was found for him on the southern side of the temple, and the following was inscribed on it: King “Amenhotep” erected a great gate, twenty-two cubits across, at the double facade of the temple, in memory of his father, “Amun”, the lord of “Thebes”. From the “Ayan” stone (that is, from the white limestone extracted from the “Tura” quarries). Likewise, the inscription refers to … the building of his house (Amun), the foundation of his temple, and the erection of his southern “gate”, which is twenty cubits high, of beautiful white stone.

And it came in a broken inscription in the tomb of a sheriff called “I am” (and his tomb is located in “Sheikh Abd al-Qurna” on the western side of Thebes), and he was the manager of works in “Karnak”, which indicates some buildings that may have been “in Karnak” himself, erected by this Pharaoh, and alabaster was brought to it from the “Hatnub” quarries located near “Assiut.” The inscription says:

Its doors were covered with copper work from one piece, and some of them were from “Al-Sam” (a mixture of gold and silver). The staff is under my management.

Establishing a temple in Deir el-Bahari:

This pharaoh erected a small temple in the place of the temple of “Deir el-Bahari”, but “Senmut”, the architect of Queen “Hatshepsut”, removed it from its place to establish the temple of the queen, and blocks were found there in the name of this pharaoh, and his mother, “Ahmose-Nefertari”.

The builders of the Temple of Hatshepsut used their daughters to build ramps to raise the huge stones, and this discovery is of importance. It indicates that this place was chosen for the establishment of temples, and also indicates that the kings of this family did not tamper with the temples of their ancestors, even if they were from their own family.

 

Amenhotep also erected, on the occasion of the celebration of the “Sed” festival (the thirtieth anniversary), a small temple at the northern end of the “Western Thebes” necropolis, and here we find both the god “Hur” (the falcon) and the Nubian god “Set” offering him a symbol of the eternity of years.

Funeral temple:

Likewise, he built a funeral temple for himself to serve his soul, “Ka,” in the desert, at the end of the southern part of the western Thebes cemetery. An industrial plant, the remains of which still exist. A beautiful statue of this pharaoh was found in this temple, and it is now in the Egyptian Museum. The image of the pharaoh's royal mother, "Ahmose-Nefertari", was painted on its base.

And in “Al Araba Al Madfuna,” this king erected a temple in honor of his father, “Ahmose” the First. He also erected some buildings in “Al Kab,” and in “Kom Ombo Temple,” he erected a sanctuary made of white stone extracted from “Tura,” and in “Shatt al-Rajal,” which is a desert valley. Near the “Silsilah” mountain between Luxor and Aswan, we see on the rocks an inscription of a construction engineer called “Beniti”, indicating that he was working during the era of this pharaoh, and the three pharaohs who succeeded him to cut stones, and in “Silsilah” itself, we see a plate engraved in the rock with a picture of it This pharaoh, as a gift from an employee called Peynamon, and this activity in those quarries from which sandstone is extracted indicates that it was used during the eighteenth dynasty for the first time in building temples in which limestone from Tora was used in the past.

There are several antiquities of this pharaoh “in the Cairo Museum” and in various museums in Europe, but as usual, their source is not known. Because it reached these museums through antiquities dealers or by stealth, the most important of which are the following:

  A beautiful head and a tughra, are part of a painting of an individual called “Pafunamon” that was preserved in the Giza Museum.

  Part of the "Mihrab".

An offering table of black granite in the Berlin Museum.

  Two vases were found in the “Berlin” Museum, marked one of them, size is eleven “hun”, that is: 317 cubic inches or 28.8 cubic inches for each “hun”, and the second vase is in the “Louvre Museum”. As for the scarabs, they were very numerous during the reign of “Amenhotep I.” There are a large number of them with a special character, rough-made, and there are also some square-shaped panels, and two cylinders, one of which bears the image of the king standing, and in the Louvre Museum a scarab on which the king is seen striking an enemy with a spear, followed by a hunting leopard.

Was the genome of the ancient Egyptians black African?

 

Kars plate

This is about the effects of the king himself, and what he did, as for his grandmother, “Aahhotep,” who survived for a long time during the days of his rule. The reign of “Amenhotep” the First, her grandson, was found in the cemetery of “Dra’ Abu al-Naga”, and it is now preserved in the Egyptian Museum. And since this painting shows us what this elderly grandmother was of greatness, and acknowledgment of the beautiful to the loyal employee, and what he, in turn, should have been characterized in him of the beautiful characteristics, we included it in its text, and here is the translation:

The tenth year, the first month of summer, the first day of the reign of His Majesty, the King of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt, “Zeser Kare”, the son of the sun, from his body, “Amenhotep the First”, beloved “Osir”, the giver of life, a decree issued by the mother of the king establishing a cemetery and funeral rites for the property manager Kars.

 

The order of the royal mother of the hereditary prince, bearer of the ring of the king of Lower Egypt, the only Samir, the manager of the two houses of gold, the manager of the two houses of silver, the great manager of the property of the royal mother «Ahhotep», and the chamberlain called «Kars», the royal mother commanded that a shrine be erected for you in the “buried cart And that all functions and all the favors you have received be written down on it, and that your statue remains in the temple among the followers of the Great God (i.e., to participate in the feasts of the god), and that he endows (i.e.: the statues) an offering of meat, and glorify and confirm their offering in writing, And it offers you a royal offering, as the royal wife likes to present to the hereditary prince, the ring bearer of Lower Egypt and the bailiff “Kars.”

 

Kar's praise:

The only beloved, who lives in the body of “Sekhmet” (the queen), and who follows in the footsteps of his princess; Therefore, he settled in her heart before people, and he is one who truly lives in the heart of his mistress, and he is the one who confides secrets to him, and who stands on his mistress's projects. And the one whose speech goes beyond what is inside the palace, the one who finds speech, the one who makes the difficult easy, the one whose life depends on his words, the one who acknowledges him to her as the truth, the one who knows the springs of the heart, the happy one who speaks in the presence of his mistress, the one who is much feared in the house of the royal mother, the one who is sober in adversity It is excellent to say, and he who conceals in himself the conditions of the palace, and from his mouth is sealed on what he hears, the prince who solves dilemmas, the director of the great house “Kars”, the vigilant guide to the deeds of the royal mother, and the one who does not prefer the night over the day, the “Kars”.

Appeal to readers of the epigraph:

He says: O princes, writers, singers, followers, and men of the army, your local gods will extend rule and revive you, and your jobs will be inherited by your children after a long life, if you say an offering offered by the Pharaoh to “Amun” with the two fine feathers, the Lord of life, the giver of love, the Lord of burial, and whoever bestows Burial after old age, to give an offering of bread, cows, geese, and everything beautiful and pure that is served at the table of the Lord of all, to the director of the royal treasury, and the director of the great house of the royal mother “Kars”; Because he is a man who was truthful before the two lands, truly upright, innocent of oaths, custodian of justice, protector of the miserable, deliverer of the unsalvageable, and who makes the disputants come out of him rejoicing with what comes out of his mouth. Like a god in his hour to listen to the conversation, and that he is in the heart of his mistress in truth, and the one whose status is raised is the princess of the lands, the manager of what has a breast, what has a horn and a hoof, the manager of the great house “Kars” bin “Aqa”, and who was placed by the housewife “Cha”.

The significance of this inscription

And from what came on this plate, we understand that the elderly queen must have been in love with the manager of her palace, and if you like, say: the manager of her own, as it is now expressed, and that by ordering her to establish a grave for him in the sacred “cemetery of Osiris” located in the holy country (the godmother), she presented to him A pricey gift that every Egyptian aspired to, wanting to have a luxurious shrine next to the great god of the dead, who resides in that sacred country.

 

In fact, if this “Kars” was true in half of what he told us, then he was truly worthy of the best tomb that the elderly queen, his mistress, could raise his building in the godmother. Which monarch of our time does not willingly and reassuringly offer what rewards the services of a man who solves Dilemmas and makes the difficult easy, and in addition to that, in addition to solving dilemmas, he brings to himself that quality that only a few people can achieve, which is his ability to print on his tongue, and seal it from what reaches his ears? But it is possible that people like those who graduated from their school, Kars, were endowed over Egypt three thousand four hundred years ago, and that they do not graduate from that school yet.

 

And Queen Aahhotep set an example in the treatment of her loyal servants, and thus she presents the idea of our new world shortly before her death, in the life of her grandson.

Death of Amenhotep I

The first “Amenhotep” died after ruling the country for more than twenty years, and “I” the architect of architecture immortalized his death in the following words in his inscriptions that he left us about the rule of this pharaoh; He says: “And when His Majesty spent his life in happiness and years of peace, he was lifted to heaven, joined the sun god, and went with him.”

Amenhotep I and his innovation in the burial

His mortuary temple was revealed in 1896 A.D. at the edge of the Western Desert in “the cemetery of Dra’ Abu al-Naga,” but he has not yet ascertained the location of his grave, despite what Mr. “Carter” presented strong proofs, 25 that it is the tomb that was revealed by the Lord. Carnarvon” in 1914 AD, at a distance of 800 meters from the funeral temple erected by this king; Mr. Weigel believes that his tomb is the one bearing the number 39 at the southern end of the Valley of the Kings. Therefore, the truth about his burial place is still vague for now, and in any case, despite the claim that his successor, "Thutmose" the First, is the one who is considered the first to establish burial customs in the "Valley of the Kings", it must acquiesce that "Amenhotep the First" was The first to design the idea of separating the mortuary temple from the tomb, and thus he was able to obtain the secrecy of the grave because of its distance from the danger that threatened the graves. The western side of Thebes, as stated in Abbott's paper, and here is what was stated in it:

The eternal horizon of King "Zeser Kare' bin Shams" "Amenhotep", which is one hundred and twenty cubits deep in its great hall, as well as in its long corridor, which is located in the north of the temple of "Amenhotep, owner of the garden", and the mayor of the country, "Bizer" put his report About him to the king “Kha Um Was” (Rameses IX) to the royal officer “Nesu Amon”, to the scribe of the pharaoh, to the director of the house of the sacred worshiper of the god “Amun Ra”, the king of the gods (i.e.: the queen), and to the royal officer “Ra Nefer Kam Ba Asen”, and to the chamberlain The king, and the great rulers, saying (in this report): “The thieves have stolen it”—it was examined today, and the builders found it intact.

The first thing to note here is that this tomb was strange in shape in relation to the other tombs examined, and especially in its depth, which was one hundred and twenty cubits; As there was no other cemetery dug in the face of these rocks close to this depth; This is because all the deep tombs were excavated on the other side of the rock in the Valley of the Kings, and in fact, the tomb of this pharaoh is considered the first among the long-depth sect of tombs whose model spread during the dynasty era from the eighteenth to the twentieth dynasty.

 

Cult of Amenhotep I and Queen Nefertari

It is not surprising that his tomb was great with this description because he was considered a god revered by the Egyptians, and since his mother, Nefertari, had come to represent “Isis” in the eyes of the people, he, in turn, represented “Osir”, the protector of the necropolis, and he was like him in taking colors Funeral deities, so we find him represented in black, followed by his son, Saba Eri. In addition, his figure was crowded with other deities to decorate the insides of coffins and to protect the mummies of his worshipers. This pharaoh has a statue in the “Turin Museum” that represents him sitting on his throne in the session of a king speaking to his subjects, or in the form of a god who accepts the submission of his servants. In fact, the person feels that the sculptor was feeling pleasure and pleasure in carving the proportions of this pharaoh, and in bringing out this countenance that was marked by the grace and calmness of the dreamer in his sleep, and the fact is that the worship of this king remained for more than seven centuries until his coffin was moved, and it was placed with the coffins of members of his family others in the place where they remained hidden until thieves revealed them in our time. However, his body had been moved several times prior to that, after his grave was stolen, of course, so we know that his mummy has buried again during the reign of King “Basebkhanu” the first after about sixty-five years had passed since that, and it was moved again during the reign of King “Batram” the first, that is, Thirty years after his second burial, and about a century later, we find the king’s sarcophagus deposited in the tomb of Queen “Anhapi”, during the reign of King “Si-Amun”, but after that, we do not show any history that remained in this last chamber, and in any case it was not It must be moved again as we mentioned; Where it was finally found in Deir el-Bahri, and then to the “Cairo Museum”, then from here to the tomb of Saad, then to the house of the director of the Antiquities Authority in the basement, then it was moved to the upper floor, and then it was finally transferred to the museum.

Coffin and mummy of Amenhotep I

His coffin was made in the image of a human body and painted white, with a face like the face of his statue, and his eyes were studded and lined with kohl, which imbued the whole body with an astonishing vitality, and the body was wrapped in orange-colored linen, and was fixed in place with almost brown bands, and then covered Covered with his face made of wood and reinforced fabric, and it was painted in the same color as the outside of the coffin, and the mummy was decorated with wreaths from head to foot, but they have withered now, and on these wreaths, there was a wasp that must have been attracted by the smell of fragrant wreaths at the time of burial, and it remained A prisoner by putting the cover on the coffin, and the wasp continued to be preserved without any damage to the embalmer's materials, and its transparent wings were preserved without any rotting during these long centuries.

The mummy of this pharaoh is still wrapped in its shroud, which has not yet been examined as if his divine power in ancient times had remained its secret until now, so it preserved his body, and he did not suffer any harm despite the fluctuations that he passed through throughout these centuries, and his name remained among the Egyptian people frequented their lips to this day, without anyone understanding it, except for archaeologists; As his name remained in the Coptic month of Pharmenoth, which means the feast of “Amenhotep”.

It seems that his second wife, Aahhotep, did not play an important role in the history of his life. Because his mother «Ahmose Nefertari» has covered her. Indeed, we find her name mentioned on several antiquities, just as we find her represented on antiquities several times with her husband, “Amenhotep the First.” She must be the king’s sister from his father and mother. As she bore the title “hereditary princess” that was given to her daughter “Ahmose”, otherwise she would not have preferred her brother and husband “Thutmose” the second, who was from a mother from the common people, as we will see later, and her sarcophagus was found in the Deir el-Bahari cache, and it is now in the museum The Egyptian, as for the body, it was not found, and “Amenhotep the First” died, and no mention of it followed, which somewhat complicated the matter of inheriting the throne, as we will see.

Cult of Amenhotep I in the Deir el-Medina cemetery

The worship of Pharaoh Amenhotep the First was considered the most important and longest worship among the pharaohs who were sanctified by the Egyptian people after their death. Because both his temple and his tomb were erected on this side, but the most important thing is that if we examine these same monuments in detail, we find that they are all attributed to the cemetery of “Deir al-Medina”, which was called the past the cemetery of the servants of the shelter of honesty. Recent research has indicated that this name denotes the workers of the royal cemetery, and from that we know that the servants of the “place of honesty” are the workers who were carving the tombs of the pharaohs in this spot, which is now known as the “gates of the kings,” and these workers were, of course, from a class Poor people of the country, and it was not likely that they were the ones who performed the funeral rites for these kings, but rather they were in the hands of the priests of the funeral temples concerned with that, but the workers were in turn royal employees, so it is not surprising, then, that they worship the kings and their chiefs after their death. The worship of Amenhotep the First in particular was popular with them. Therefore, this Pharaoh became the revelation that separates them in their petty quarrels.

What kind of ruler was Amenhotep I?

Workers and Amenhotep I

In fact, Amenhotep the First was the first to carve his tomb in the rocks of Thebes hills, and he was the first to do good to the workers and find work for them in the royal cemetery, and they were called the servants of the “place of honesty.” ownership, not surprisingly; All the documents we have on this subject date back to the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty, and this subject was examined by Professor Cherni in a wonderful article, which is summarized as follows:

  •  The worship of King “Amenhotep the First” was widespread among the workers in the Royal Thebes Cemetery, as evidenced by their funeral and civil monuments, and the reason for this is the close relationship that exists between their group and Amenhotep the First, who established their sect.
  • In western Thebes, there were several forms of worshiping “Amenhotep the First” corresponding to his statues in different niches, and we know two of them in particular from the effects of the necropolis workers, and they are Amenhotep, the master of the city (i.e.: the city of workers), and Amenhotep is beloved Amun; It can be distinguished by the crown worn by each of the images of the pharaoh in these two cases.
  • It was one of the pharaoh's niches in the village of the workers, and the statue of the pharaoh on various holidays was carried in the "Deir al-Medina" cemetery ceremony, and sometimes it was even carried to the "Valley of the Kings".
  • The statue of “Amenhotep the First” was used to settle disputes between workers, through the revelation that the statue used to pronounce in the mihrab or during processions.
  •  The workers themselves used to do the work of priests to worship this pharaoh, and it was the workers in particular who carried the statue of the pharaoh in processions.

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