Head of Amenhotep II

Amenhotep II, sixth king of Dynasty 18, was the son and coregent of Thutmose III. He was buried in Tomb 35 of the Valley of the Kings at Thebes, where his mummy was found still resting in its original sarcophagus. His principal activities as king were to preserve the hegemony over most of Nubia and the Levant that the military campaigns of Thutmose III had established. This finely sculpted head of the king shows him wearing a nemes headcloth with a prominent uraeus on the front. The body of the snake undulates up and over the top of the nemes. The fine features of the face show a youthful king. Amenhotep became king before he was twenty and he noted his accomplishments as a hunter, charioteer, and archer on several of his monuments.