AKHENATEN

HIS FATHER'S POLICIES                                                                                continued



Amenophis III was one of the greatest builders in the history of Egypt. 

Witness to this is borne especially by the temple of Luxor, by the double temple of
Soleb and Sedeinga in Nubia and by his mortuary temple on the west bank of Thebes;
the latter exceeded all its predecessors in size, but it was soon severely damaged by
an earthquake.  Where the monumental entrance to the temple once stood, now only
the two huge Colossi of Memnon (below), each more than 65feet in height and weigh-
ing 720tons, testify to the temple's original size, as well as to the king's tendency to
megalomania.






This latter stamped out not only his architecture and royal statuary, but other objects
as well; never had such large 'shawabtis' and scarabs been made.

The officials of the royal court followed the king in this tendency, as shown by the huge,
though uncompleted, tomb of the vizier Amenhotpe on the Asasif.

The tendency to the colossal was complemented by a turn to unusual building material.

In a dedicatory inscription at the temple of Montu in the Karnak complex, the king men-
tions precious materials such as gold, silver, lapis lazuli, jasper, turquoise, bronze and
copper, which he used in its construction and decoration, noting with pride the exact
weights of each.

He attempted thus to capture, quite literally, the "weight of this monument," as the capt-
ion to another list on the Third Pylon at Karnak puts it.