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THE COURTYARD, WEST WALL, NORTH SIDE (plan, C3)

The north half of the west wall (view C3_15), executed in the same style that the south wall, celebrates the third jubilee of Amenhotep III, which took place during the 37th year of his reign.

West wall, north side (plan, C3). according to Epigraphic Survey, Kheruef, Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago

At the left extremity of the scene

C3_15	C3_11	C3_12	C3_14

Amenhotep III and queen Tiy are each seated on a throne, under a decorative canopy.
The king (view C3_11, C3_12 and C3_14) wears the blue Khepresh crown and the insignia of royalty in addition to the cross of life, the ankh; he is seated on a white seat, its back encloses him in the wings of a falcon and his feet rest on a golden step represented by yellow paint. In his hands he holds the insignia of the power, the heqa-sceptre and the flail. Above of the king is a solar disk whose two uraei carry the sign of life, the ankh. One notices well here the youthful character of the representation. After the Sed-festival, the king is supposed to be regenerated. This type of idealised representation is typical of the end of the reign of Amenhotep III.

C3_10

The queen (view C3_10), always behind the king, is seated on a lower throne which,judging by the colour, must be of gold with feet made of ebony. It is a lot more sumptuous than the one of her husband which had, according to tradition, to be of the archaic type. Its armrest presents a special decoration (view C3_27), indeed, the queen is represented in the form of a lioness with a human head wearing a crown with a uraeus with horns and solar disc. The sphinx tramples on a black woman and a Syrian, the scene is described by the text behind: "trampling all foreign countries". Between the feet of the throne are the same prisoners as on the armrest, tied up back to back to the hieroglyphic sign of "unification".

C3_07	C3_08	C3_09

The platform of the canopy is decorated of the Nine Bows, each of them represented with their arms bound behind their back; their bodies under their chest is a crenelated oval containing the name of the region or the city from which they originated. These regions are either conquered or subjugated, from right to left (view C3_07, C3_08 and C3_09) : the Hau-Nebu (those of the Aegean and other islands of the Mediterranean); the Shatyw (Upper Nubians); Ta-Shema (Upper Egypt); the Seshtyw-im (inhabitants of the Oases); Ta-Mehu (Lower Egypt); the Pejtyw-shu (Eastern Desert); the Tjehenu (Libyans); the Iwentyu-sety (Nubians); the Mentywnu-sedjet (Asiatics).

C3_13	C3_06
C3_01

Before the canopy, Kheruef, whose picture has suffered a lot, makes offerings to the royal couple (view C3_13 and C3_06). He presents them a vase decorated with lotus petals, in the right hand and a box decorated with three cartouches (those of the king and the queen) each surmounted by a solar disk, in the left hand. Four golden necklaces also hang from his hands.

Under the royal kiosk, to the extreme left of the lower register, new men advance with Kheruef at their head.
This is the only representation which has not been mutilated in the whole tomb, probably because it was already covered by the remnants of the collapsed portico roof (view C3_01, C3_04 and C3_03).


The remainder of the upper register
This is occupied by the scenes relating to the ceremony of the pillar djed, which symbolises the final rite of the festival of Sokar, with the comment "Erection of the Djed-pillar for Ptah-Sokar-Osiris". It is likened to the spinal-column of Osiris, and therefore the rectification, to stability, is equally a representation of the victory of Osiris over Seth (view C3_28 and C3_29).

C3_28	C3_29

In the first stage, the pillar is mumiform, it is place on a sledge and has two udjat-eyes, the crown with two feathers, uraeus, the heqa-sceptre and the flail.
In front, Amenhotep III presents a three tiers of offerings to it: the first one is composed of bread, birds, fruit, flowers, etc., the second one is composed of two oxen and the third one of four jars of wine.
The following scene is the erection of the Djed-pillar by the pharaoh and three priests. Another supports the pylon.

On the north extremity of the upper register, sixteen princesses are divided up on two registers: this scene is not finished and has suffered greatly. The representations of the young girls is very similar to those seen in the Sed-festival, it represents royal princesses shaking Hathoric sistra.

C3_23	C3_31
C3_19	C3_22
C3_16	C3_21
C3_18

The three lower registers represent different ceremonies carried out by priests and prietesses (view C3_23 and C3_31).

The first one of the three registers, starting from the left, shows the greetings intended for Ptah-Sokar of dances and offerings of food, Djed-pillars, Ankh-crosses..., (view C3_17, C3_19, C3_20, C3_22, C3_30).

The second register presents dancing men, dancing women coming from oases on the occasion of the festivities in honour of the pillar; fighters carry out ritual gestures (view C3_16 and C3_21).

The third register, which begins under the throne scene, shows the preparation for the transportation of offerings placed on the boats (view C3_32). Animals, donkeys and cattle, in the framework of the ceremony, "must circle the walls of Memphis four times" (view C3_18).

THE TWO HYPOSTYLE ROOMS (plan, d-f) AND THE FUNERARY ROOMS (plan, g-j)

The corridor (plan, C-D) which divides the scenes of jubilees, leads into the first hypostyle room (plan, D).

CD_02	CD_09	CD_03
CD_07	CD_06	CD_08
CD_09	CD_10
D_01	D_02	D_03

A hymn to the rising sun decorates the south wall of the passage: the inscriptions very carefully are carried out, in raised relief, in the purest style of the end of the XVIIIth Dynasty (view CD_02 and CD_09). Kheruef is also represented with his mother Ruiu whose titles are recalled behind them (view CD_03, CD_03bis, CD_07 and CD_06).
Opposite, on the right side, the hieroglyphs in sunken relief have retained their blue colour (view CD_09 and CD_10).

The first hypostyle room (plan, D; view D_01, D_02, D_03), measuring about 25m. north south and 12m. east west is composed of three rows of ten columns, all very damaged, of which two still retain inscriptions. The west wall of this room opens on to a new room of incomplete columns (plan, E).

This second room extends over a length of about 20m. and at a width of 6m. Behind the west wall, it seems that chapels were still to be constructed.

The descents towards the very vast funerary rooms (plan, G-H-I-J), open up in the south-western corner of the first hypostyle room.

THE REVOLUTIONARY ROLE OF THE SUN IN THE RELIEFS AND STATUARY OF AMENHOTEP III, an extract of Pr W. Raymond Johnson, on the Oriental Insitute, Chicago website. Amenhotep III's Jubilees It is probably no coincidence that Amenhotep III's new artistic style with its solar symbolism and exaggerated youthfulness appeared at the very time he celebrated his three Heb Sed or jubilee celebrations in the last decade of his reign, in his regnal years 30, 34, and 37. The Heb Sed was a great rejuvenation ceremony which Egyptian kings traditionally celebrated after their first thirty years of rule and then every three or four years thereafter. The exaggerated youthfulness of Amenhotep's facial features in the new style must have been intentionally designed to reflect the king's symbolic rejuvenation at the culmination of his jubilee rites. But the new costumes of the king with their solar and funerary iconography go another unprecedented step further. According to the tomb parallels, the costume iconography indicates that Amenhotep III is to be identified with the sun god Re. Providentially for us, another key piece of the puzzle is preserved in the Theban tomb of the high official Kheruef, who supervised Amenhotep's jubilees. Reliefs there, dated to Amenhotep's first jubilee in year thirty, depict a jubilee ritual where Amenhotep III and his wife Queen Tiye are being towed by members of the court in the evening and morning barks of Re. It is stated in the accompanying text that: "It was His Majesty who did this in accordance with writings of old. (Past) generations [of] people since the time of ancestors had never celebrated (such) rites of the jubilee" (OIP 102, p. 43, pl. 24). The ritual that is depicted in Kheruef's tomb is found in Pyramid Text 222 from the Old Kingdom, which describes the union of the king and the sun god in the solar barks of the day and night, after the king's death. Yet Amenhotep III clearly is represented enacting this ritual alive, eight to nine years before he actually died!