Amenhotep

Seen just yesterday morning in Luxor Museum. It is the magnificent granite crowned head of King Amenhotep III. Once it was attached to a colossal statue that was one of many that decorated his funeral temple on the west bank of The Nile opposite Luxor. He inhabited the New Kingdom of Egypt some 3350 years ago and was the ruling pharaoh for forty five years.  Tutankhamun was his grandson.

His reign marked a time of exceptional prosperity and grandeur, during which Egypt reached the height of its artistic and international influence, making him one of ancient Egypt's greatest pharaohs. He was also one of the few pharaohs worshipped as a deity during his lifetime.

What a remarkable privilege it was to be in the very room where that beautifully carved granite head now resides. It might have been machine-made just last year but it was expertly hand-carved, smoothed and polished over a thousand years before those three wise men allegedly arrived in Bethlehem.

Egypt... so many stories, so many puzzles, so much magnificence... and through it all ran The Nile.