Amenhotep II

Amenhotep II

Amenhotep II offering sacrifices, statue, 15th century BC; in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo

(credit: Courtesy of the Egyptian Museum; photograph, Hirmer Fotoarchiv, Munchen)

(flourished 15th century BC) Egyptian pharaoh (r. 1514–1493 BC), son and successor of Ahmose I. Amenhotep extended Egyptian rule southward to the Third Cataract of the Nile while also maintaining rule in the northeast. He pioneered the transition away from pyramidal tombs to rock-cut tombs in the Valley of the Kings in western Thebes. The royal mortuary temples were erected at the edge of the desert during his reign, though the location of his own tomb is unknown.