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Amenhotep III's name in hieroglyphs: how to read it and where to see it
17 October 2026
Amenhotep III signed his monuments with two cartouches. The throne name, Nebmaatre, is three signs: the sun disc, the seated goddess Maat and a basket. The birth name, Amenhotep, "Amun is content", starts with the god's name and usually adds "ruler of Thebes".
He ruled Egypt for about 38 years, roughly 1390 to 1352 BC, in a time of peace and wealth, and built on a scale few kings matched. His names are carved at Luxor Temple, on statues in museums across the world and on hundreds of small stone scarabs.
Three signs write Nebmaatre
The throne name is nb-mꜣꜥt-rꜥ, said "neb-maat-ra", "Lord of truth is Ra". The sun disc (N5) for Ra stands at the top of the oval out of respect and is read last. The seated goddess with a feather on her head (C10) is Maat, truth and right order. Some inscriptions write her with the feather (H6) alone. The basket (V30) at the bottom gives nb, "lord".
Foreign kings wrote the same name in cuneiform. In the Amarna letters, clay tablets of his diplomatic mail, Tushratta of Mitanni greets him as "my brother Nimmureya", an Akkadian rendering of Nebmaatre that hints at how the name may have sounded.
The birth name starts with Amun
The birth name is imn-ḥtp, said "amen-hotep". The reed (M17), the game board (Y5) and the water ripple (N35) spell imn, Amun, and stand first because a god's name leads. The loaf on an offering mat (R4) writes ḥtp, "content, at peace", with the bread loaf (X1) and the stool (Q3) as reading aids for its t and p.
Inside the same oval he usually added ḥqꜣ-wꜣst, "ruler of Thebes". The shepherd's crook (S38) writes ḥqꜣ, "ruler", and a sceptre topped with a ribbon writes Waset, Thebes, his capital.
He sent the news of his reign out on scarabs
Amenhotep III had the news of his reign carved on large stone scarabs, sent around the country. About two hundred survive, in five sets. The lion hunt scarabs count over a hundred lions he killed in his first ten years, 102 on most of them. The marriage scarabs name his great royal wife Tiye and say her father is Yuya and her mother Thuya, people outside the royal family. They add that his southern border is at Karoy and his northern at Naharin, in Syria.
His son Akhenaten turned against Amun, and his agents chiselled the god's name out of inscriptions across Egypt. That included his own father's birth name: on many monuments the first three signs of Amenhotep are gone, leaving ḥtp and "ruler of Thebes" in a damaged oval. Nebmaatre, with no Amun in it, was usually spared. Later kings restored the name in some places.
Luxor Temple is mostly his
In the sun court of Luxor Temple, his cartouches are cut deep into column bases and architraves, and the birth room shows Amun as his divine father. Luxor Museum, on the Corniche north of the temple, displays statues found in 1989 in a pit under that court. One, in pink quartzite, shows him in the double crown, and Akhenaten's men chiselled the name of Amun out of its inscription.
Across the river, the Colossi of Memnon are two seated statues of the king about 18 metres high with their bases, all that stands of his vast mortuary temple. Greeks took the northern one for Memnon, a hero of the Trojan War, and Roman visitors cut 107 inscriptions in Greek and Latin into its legs, among them poems written when Emperor Hadrian came in AD 130. His tomb, WV22, lies in the West Valley of the Valley of the Kings, and his mummy is at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo.
The sun goes at the top of the oval
Draw the oval and put the sun at the top. Seat Maat below it, knees drawn up, the tall feather rising from her head. The basket goes underneath, a flat half-bowl with its open side up.
Then try the long oval of Amenhotep, ruler of Thebes, and compare it with an erased one from a photo.
Questions
Who was Amenhotep III's wife?
His great royal wife was Tiye, named beside him on statues, scarabs and in foreign letters. He also married foreign princesses, among them Gilukhepa of Mitanni, whose arrival has its own set of scarabs.
Is Amenhotep III the father of Akhenaten?
Yes. Akhenaten was born Amenhotep, the fourth king of that name, and changed it after he put the Aten above all other gods. Tutankhamun was most likely Amenhotep III's grandson.
What is the difference between Amenhotep and Amenophis?
Amenophis is the Greek form of the name, used in many older books and museum labels, so Amenophis III and Amenhotep III are the same king.
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.
- Maat
- Truth, justice and the right order of the world, shown as a goddess with an ostrich feather on her head. Kings claimed to uphold it.
- mummy
- A body dried and wrapped in linen so that it would last. Egyptians believed the spirit needed it in the afterlife.
- scarab
- The dung beetle, sign of the rising sun and of the word ḫpr, "to come into being". Carved scarabs were used as seals and amulets.
- 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
- Luxor Temple site
- Luxor Museum museum
- Valley of the Kings site
- National Museum of Egyptian Civilization museum
Sources
More to read
- Djoser's name in hieroglyphs: his serekh read sign by sign Djoser's name in hieroglyphics: his own Horus name Netjerikhet read sign by sign in its serekh, the later name Djoser, and where to see both.
- Ahmose I's name in hieroglyphs: the king who drove out the Hyksos Ahmose I's name in hieroglyphics: his birth name Ahmose and throne name Nebpehtyre read sign by sign, his war on the Hyksos, and where to see it today.
- Nefertiti's name in hieroglyphs: how to read it and where to see it Nefertiti's name in hieroglyphics: Nefertiti and her longer name Neferneferuaten read sign by sign, her place beside Akhenaten, and where to see them.