Vincent Brooks-Day & Son, Lith.
AMENHOTEP ON THE LAP OF A GODDESS.
‘I am he that hath watched over thee—oh my son beloved! Horus crowned in Thebes!’
Thothmes iii. reigned very nearly 54 years. His faithful attendant Amenemhib, whose prowess had saved his master from the elephant and the wild horse, lived long enough to record that master’s end.
‘So after many years of victory and power,’ he says, ‘the King ended his course. He took his flight upwards into heaven and was joined unto the company of Ra. When the morning broke and the sky grew bright then was King Amenhotep (may he live for ever!) seated upon his father’s throne; crowned like Horus, son of Isis, he took possession of Khemi.’
The magnificent terraced temple of Hatasu formed the mausoleum of the Thothmes family; but, like his predecessors, Thothmes the Great has not been suffered to remain undisquieted in the tomb. It was not far off from Hatasu’s temple that his mummy also was discovered. The coffin was much injured, and the mummy itself broken into three pieces—the mutilated remains of this mighty Pharaoh are lying in the Museum at Boulak.
After the death of their conqueror, the kings of Canaan and the princes of Mesopotamia threw off the foreign yoke. Amenhotep ii. overran the country and reduced its inhabitants once more to subjection. It is recorded of him that he smote down and slew seven of the Canaanitish chiefs with his battle-axe, and brought them back with him to Egypt. ‘Six of these enemies,’ says the story, ‘were hung upon the walls of Thebes, and their hands were hung up in the same way;’ the other enemy was brought up the river to Nubia, and hung upon the walls of the town of Napata ‘to show to the people of the land of the negroes for all time the victories of the king over his enemies.’ This is the chief event recorded of the reign of Amenhotep ii., who was succeeded by Thothmes iv.