---
node: amenhotep_iii
type: person
slug: amenhotep_iii
title: "Amenhotep III"
lead: "Amenhotep III (r. c. 1390–c. 1352 BC) was an 18th Dynasty king whose long reign is often seen as the peak of Egypt's prosperity and international prestige. He ruled mainly by diplomacy rather than war and built on a grand scale."
published: 2026-07-10
updated: 2026-07-10
image_file: amenhotep_iii.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colossal_granite_head_of_Amenhotep_III,_British_Museum.jpg"
image_author: "Yair Haklai"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

## Who they were

Amenhotep III was a king of the 18th Dynasty, ruling c. 1390–c. 1352 BC. His wife, Queen Tiye, held unusual prominence at his side.

## What they did

His statecraft rested on diplomacy: royal marriages with foreign princesses and gold-based gift exchange with the other great powers, dealings vividly documented in the Amarna Letters — diplomatic tablets found at Amarna, many of them from his era and his son's. A prolific builder, he raised much of Luxor Temple, a vast mortuary temple, and the palace complex of Malqata. He also issued large commemorative scarabs announcing royal events such as marriages and hunts — an early form of royal publicity.

## Legacy

In Nubia, in some temples, he was worshipped as a deified form of himself during his own lifetime. Of his mortuary temple, the two Colossi of Memnon still remain, and hundreds of statues of the goddess Sekhmet survive from his reign. His son Amenhotep IV was the future Akhenaten.