Amenhotep I, King of Egypt (1525-1504 BC)

Amenhotep I was the second king of the Eighteenth Dynasty. He succeeded his father, Ahmose I, who expelled the Hyksos kings from Egypt. Amenhotep I probably ascended the throne as a child, when his mother Ahmose Nefertari may have acted as regent. Amenhotep I and his mother, Ahmose Nefertari, were revered for nearly five hundred years as local Theban deities.

Little is known of the reign of Amenhotep I. A few events can be established from inscriptions in private tombs. According to the autobiography of a soldier, Ahmose son of Ibana, Amenhotep I led a campaign to Kush. An inscription in the tomb of Ahmose Pen-Nekhbet states that the king also led an expedition to Libya. His chief architect, Ineni, mentions that he commissioned building work at Karnak.

The exact location of the tomb of Amenhotep I at Thebes is unknown, but it is mentioned in the Abbott Papyrus, which documents an inspection of the royal tombs under Ramesses IX. Amenhotep I's mummy was found in the royal cache at Deir el-Bahari in 1881. It was re-wrapped by priests in the Twenty-first Dynasty, and remains the only royal mummy which has not been unwrapped in modern times.