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Amenhotep I in hieroglyphs: the king the tomb builders made a god
25 October 2026
Amenhotep I wrote two cartouches. His throne name, ḏsr-kꜣ-rꜥ, Djeserkare, means "holy is the ka of Ra", with three signs: the sun disc, an arm holding a wand and two raised arms. His birth name, imn-ḥtp, Amenhotep, means "Amun is content".
He was the second king of the 18th Dynasty, son of Ahmose I and Queen Ahmose-Nefertari, and ruled for about twenty years from around 1525 BC. After his death the craftsmen who cut the royal tombs worshipped him and his mother as the patrons of their village, Deir el-Medina, for four hundred years.
Three signs write Djeserkare
The sun disc (N5) is Ra, placed at the top of the oval in his honour and read last. The arm holding a wand (D45) is ḏsr, "holy" or "set apart". The two raised arms (D28) are kꜣ, the ka, a person's life force. Read in order: ḏsr-kꜣ-rꜥ, Djeserkare.
It is one of the shortest throne names of the New Kingdom, and easy to pick out on a wall: a single arm and a pair of arms under the sun.
Amun comes first in Amenhotep
The birth name opens with Amun's name: the reed leaf (M17), the game board (Y5) and the water ripple (N35) spell imn. The offering mat with a loaf on it (R4) is ḥtp, "content" or "at peace", followed by the loaf t (X1) and the stool p (Q3) that spell its last sounds.
Three later kings took the same name, which is why we number them. The Egyptians told them apart by their throne names. Amenhotep III, a century later, was Nebmaatre.
He built at Karnak with the architect Ineni
His father Ahmose had driven the Hyksos out of Egypt. Amenhotep campaigned in Nubia and built a temple at Sai island, near the Third Cataract. At Karnak, with his architect Ineni, he built a chapel of white alabaster for the boat of Amun. Later kings took it apart, and its blocks have since been put back together in the Open Air Museum at Karnak, his cartouches sharp on the stone.
He was also the first king known to build his funerary temple away from his tomb, the plan that the kings of the New Kingdom followed in Thebes for the next four centuries.
Deir el-Medina worshipped him as an oracle
The village of the royal tomb builders, Deir el-Medina, on the west bank at Luxor, honoured Amenhotep I and Ahmose-Nefertari as its founders. Several festivals for him were held each year. His statue was carried out in procession and answered questions by moving towards one answer or another: who had stolen a tool, who owned a hut, whether a man spoke the truth.
Painted stelae and tomb walls in the village show the two of them side by side, Ahmose-Nefertari often with black skin, the colour of the fertile Nile mud and of rebirth. In the tomb of Inherkhau, for example, look for Djeserkare among rows of earlier kings and queens.
His mummy has never been unwrapped
Where Amenhotep I was buried is still uncertain. Two tombs are proposed: KV39 in the Valley of the Kings and tomb ANB at Dra Abu el-Naga, which most scholars now favour. His mummy survived because priests moved it, with other royal mummies, to a hidden tomb at Deir el-Bahari, the cache DB320.
It still wears its wrappings, a mask and garlands of flowers. It is the only royal mummy that Egyptologists have not unwrapped. A CT scan in 2019 looked inside it and put his age at death at about 35. The mummy now lies in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo.
Questions
Who were Amenhotep I's parents?
Ahmose I, who drove out the Hyksos and began the 18th Dynasty, and Queen Ahmose-Nefertari. He became heir after an elder brother died.
Why was Amenhotep I worshipped at Deir el-Medina?
The tomb builders treated him and his mother as the founders of their village and their work. His cult there lasted through the New Kingdom.
Where is Amenhotep I buried?
His tomb is not known for certain. His mummy was found in the Deir el-Bahari cache and is in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo.
Glossary
- birth name
- The name a king was given at birth, written in the second cartouche after the title "son of Ra". Egyptologists also call it the nomen.
- cartouche
- An oval ring drawn around a royal name, a loop of rope tied at one end. Kings wrote their two main names in cartouches.
- dynasty
- A line of kings counted together, usually one family. Egyptologists number Egypt's kings in about 30 dynasties, following the priest Manetho.
- mummy
- A body dried and wrapped in linen so that it would last. Egyptians believed the spirit needed it in the afterlife.
- New Kingdom
- Egypt's age of empire, about 1550 to 1069 BC, the time of Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II.
- priest
- A servant of a god in a temple, who washed, dressed and fed the god's statue each day. A high priest led the staff of a great temple.
- stela
- An upright stone slab carved with words and pictures, set up in tombs and temples or to mark a border.
- temple
- The house of a god, where priests served the god's statue. Temples for dead kings kept up their offerings after death.
- throne name
- The name a king took when he came to the throne, written in the first cartouche after the title "King of Upper and Lower Egypt". Egyptologists also call it the prenomen.
- tomb
- A burial place: a pit, a mastaba, a pyramid or rooms cut into rock. Its chapel was where the family brought offerings.
- Valley of the Kings
- A desert valley on the west bank at Luxor where the New Kingdom kings were buried in tombs cut into the rock, Tutankhamun among them.
People in this article
Where to see it
- Karnak Temple site
- Deir el-Medina site
- Tomb of Inherkhau (TT359) monument
- National Museum of Egyptian Civilization museum
- Valley of the Kings site
Sources
More to read
- Thutmose II in hieroglyphs: Hatshepsut's husband and his lost tomb Thutmose II in hieroglyphics: Aakheperenre and Thutmose read sign by sign, the husband of Hatshepsut, and the tomb in the Theban hills confirmed in 2025.
- Senusret I in hieroglyphs: Kheperkare, his White Chapel and his obelisk Senusret I in hieroglyphics: his cartouche Kheperkare read sign by sign, the White Chapel at Karnak and the obelisk of Heliopolis still standing in Cairo.
- Amenemhat III in hieroglyphs: Nimaatre, two pyramids and the Labyrinth Amenemhat III in hieroglyphics: Nimaatre and Amenemhat read sign by sign, the Black Pyramid's capstone in Cairo, and his tomb by the Labyrinth at Hawara.