Learn › Pharaohs and famous Egyptians
Horemheb in hieroglyphs: the general who wrote his name over others
25 October 2026
Horemheb's birth name is ḥr-m-ḥb, "Horus is in festival". In his cartouche a falcon writes Horus, a sign read m writes "in", and a festival bowl on a reed mat writes ḥb, "festival". He added mry-imn, "beloved of Amun", and its signs come first.
He commanded Egypt's army under Tutankhamun and became the last king of the 18th Dynasty, around 1320 BC. As king he put his own cartouches over Tutankhamun's and Ay's on temple walls and statues, so his name now stands on monuments he never built.
Amun leads the birth name
Read the cartouche from the top. The reed leaf (M17), the game board (Y5) and the water ripple (N35) spell imn, Amun, honoured at the front. The hoe with a cutting edge (U6) is mr, "beloved": mry-imn, "beloved of Amun". Then the falcon (G5) is Horus, ḥr. The sign Aa15 gives m, "in", and the alabaster bowl on a mat (W3) is ḥb, "festival".
The name was his before he was king. Many ordinary Egyptians were called Horemheb. As king he kept it and wrapped it in the cartouche.
His throne name is Djeserkheperure
His throne name reads ḏsr-ḫprw-rꜥ stp-n-rꜥ, Djeserkheperure Setepenre, "holy are the forms of Ra, chosen of Ra". The sun disc (N5) is Ra. The arm holding a wand (D45) is ḏsr, "holy". The scarab (L1) with three strokes (Z2) is ḫprw, "forms". The adze (U21) and water (N35) spell stp-n, "chosen of".
Tutankhamun's throne name, Nebkheperure, and Akhenaten's, Neferkheperure, share the same scarab with plural strokes. Horemheb kept the pattern of the dynasty he had served.
As a general he built a tomb at Saqqara
Under Tutankhamun, Horemheb was commander of the army and the king's deputy in all the land. He built a large tomb at Saqqara, near Memphis, with reliefs of captives from Nubia and the Near East brought before the king, and of Horemheb receiving gold collars as a reward. The captions give his titles.
After he became king, a royal cobra was added to his brow on some of the figures. Reliefs taken from the tomb in the nineteenth century are in Leiden, in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden. The tomb itself was found again in 1975.
Horemheb recut the cartouches of two kings
Tutankhamun's successor Ay named another general, Nakhtmin, as heir. Horemheb took the throne anyway. He then claimed the work of both. At Luxor Temple, Tutankhamun's reliefs of the Opet festival now carry Horemheb's names, cut over the boy king's. The colossal statue in Chicago's ISAC Museum shows Tutankhamun's face, inscribed for Ay and then for Horemheb.
Look closely at recut cartouches. The new signs sit in a slightly sunken patch where the old ones were chiselled away, and traces of the earlier name sometimes show through.
He also took apart Akhenaten's temples at Karnak and packed thousands of their small blocks, the talatat, into his new Second and Ninth Pylons. Modern restorers took them out and found Akhenaten's reliefs intact inside.
His Great Edict fought corruption
On a stela by the Tenth Pylon at Karnak, Horemheb set out rules against officials who seized boats, cattle and harvests. Courts were reorganised, and the old cults closed under Akhenaten were restored.
He was buried in tomb KV57 in the Valley of the Kings, found by Edward Ayrton for Theodore Davis in 1908 and left unfinished. Its walls are carved and painted, among the first in the valley in raised relief. He had no surviving son and named his vizier Paramessu, who became Ramesses I.
Questions
How long did Horemheb reign?
Probably 14 years or a little more. Wine jar labels from his tomb point to 14 years, but a bowl dated to his year 16 suggests a slightly longer reign. An older view gave him 27 years.
Why did Horemheb erase Tutankhamun's name?
He presented himself as the king who restored order after Akhenaten, and later king lists skip from Amenhotep III to Horemheb. Claiming Tutankhamun's and Ay's monuments fitted that story.
Who was Horemheb's wife?
Mutnedjmet. A statue of the two of them in Turin carries a long text of his coronation on its back.
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.
- pylon
- The huge gateway of a temple: two sloping towers with a door between them, carved with scenes of the king.
- relief
- A carving on a flat surface. In raised relief the background is cut away. In sunk relief the figures are cut into the stone.
- 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.
- 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.
- vizier
- The king's chief minister, who ran the government, the courts and the treasury for him.
People in this article
Where to see it
- Tomb of Horemheb at Saqqara monument
- Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden museum
- Luxor Temple site
- ISAC Museum, University of Chicago museum
- Karnak Temple site
- Valley of the Kings site
- Museo Egizio, Turin museum
Sources
More to read
- Amenhotep I in hieroglyphs: the king the tomb builders made a god Amenhotep I in hieroglyphics: Djeserkare and Amenhotep read sign by sign, the king worshipped at Deir el-Medina, and the one royal mummy left unwrapped.
- 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.