Amenhotep III

This article is about the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. For other uses, see Amenhotep.

Amenhotep III (c. 1388 BCE – 1353 or 1351 BCE) was the ninth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty. Under his rule, Egypt entered an age of prosperity and artistic splendour, reaching such peaks of artistic and international power that he was deified during his lifetime. He was later succeeded by his son, Akhenaten.

Biography

During his reign, Amenhotep built a mortuary temple in the Theban Necropolis across the Nile, along with two giant statues in his image.

Legacy

In 2012, the Assassin Clay Kaczmarek collected details of Amenhotep's life while he was held captive by Abstergo Industries at their Animus Project laboratory in Rome. He then hid the information within the Animus 1.28 in Glyph puzzles for his successor, Desmond Miles. Sometime in early September, Desmond solved the puzzle set titled "Instruments of Power", in which Amenhotep was excluded from a list of historic individuals who wielded a Staff of Eden.

Behind the scenes

While the fifth Glyph puzzle "Instruments of Power" in Assassin's Creed II references Amenhotep III as the depicted figure, the image follows a stylistic convention in Egyptian art typically used to portray defeated enemies, slaves, or foreign captives rather than the pharaohs themselves. This suggests a potential confusion made by the development team, who may have mistakenly attributed the image to him.

Gallery

• 
  The Colossi of Memnom at the Theban Necropolis.
• 
  Image erroneously used by Clay to depict Amenhotep III

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed II (appears in glyphs only)
• Assassin's Creed: Origins – The Curse of the Pharaohs (statue only)