Amenhetep II

Son of Thutmes III and Great Royal Wife Hatshepsut Meryet-Ra, Amenhetep II was sole ruler for 23 years in Dynasty XVIII. He proudly continued his father’s military tradition and fought several campaigns in Syria. These he boastfully recounted on the walls of many of his monuments. In one famous incident, he had seven Syrian princes taken as prisoners of war, killed them, and hung them upside down on the outer wall of a temple in Thebes. He frequently described his athletic prowess, claiming that no one could equal his talents as an archer, horseman, runner or oarsman. Such boasts may have been a way of ensuring that he was seen as a strong, virile ruler. Amenhetep II built at Karnak and at Luxor, as well as at other Egyptian and Nubian sites. He was buried in KV 35. Four or five centuries later, the tomb was plundered, and later used for the reburial of ten royal mummies, moved there for safekeeping by priests concerned about thefts in the Valley of the Kings.