# Horemheb Source: https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/pharaohs/horemheb Language: en # Horemheb The general who took the throne and set about deleting the four reigns before him. **Reign**: c.1323–1295 BCE **Dynasty**: 18th Dynasty **Period**: New Kingdom **Also written**: Horemhab · Djeserkheperure Setepenre · حور محب · حورمحب · جسر خبرو رع ## Who they were Horemheb was an army commander under Tutankhamun who became king after Ay, closing the Eighteenth Dynasty. His reign length is disputed: this timeline follows a longer chronology, while evidence from wine-jar labels in KV57 has supported a shorter reign. His successor became Ramesses I, founder of the Nineteenth Dynasty. ## Why they matter He put the state back together after Amarna, and he did it partly by removing the record of it: the reigns of Akhenaten, of the short-lived rulers after him, of Tutankhamun and of Ay were treated as though they had not happened, their monuments usurped or dismantled and their years absorbed into his own. At Karnak he demolished Akhenaten’s Aten temples and packed the blocks into the pylons (a monumental gateway formed by two massive towers) he was building — which is why we still have them. And he wrote a long decree, cut on a stela at Karnak, against corrupt officials and soldiers extorting from the poor, with specific penalties. ## What happened The temple administration was restored and re-staffed, the priesthoods refounded, and the legal decree issued. At Karnak he built the Second Pylon on the main axis and the Ninth and Tenth Pylons on the southern one, all three filled with Amarna talatat (a small standardised sandstone block, sized for one man to carry, from Akhenaten’s Theban temples). At Luxor Temple he completed and re-inscribed the Great Colonnade, replacing Tutankhamun’s cartouches (an oval frame containing a royal name) in the Opet procession with his own. He took over Ay’s unfinished mortuary temple (a temple for royal commemoration and divine worship, active during a king’s life and after death) on the west bank and enlarged it. He had already had a fine tomb built for himself at Saqqara while he was a general; on becoming king he abandoned it and had KV57 cut in the Valley of the Kings instead. That royal tomb is significant for a different reason: it was left unfinished, and its walls show the decoration at every stage from red grid lines to finished painted relief. ## What they built in Luxor At Karnak: the Second Pylon and the Ninth and Tenth Pylons, built around a core of Akhenaten’s dismantled blocks. At Luxor Temple: the completion of the Great Colonnade and the re-inscription of its Opet reliefs. On the west bank: the completion and enlargement of Ay’s mortuary temple. And KV57 in the Valley of the Kings. ## Where to meet them Two places tell the story together. Walk the southern axis at Karnak through the Ninth and Tenth Pylons — the buildings are his and their insides are Akhenaten’s. Then stand in the Great Colonnade at Luxor Temple and look at the cartouches above the Opet procession: the scenes were carved for Tutankhamun and the names on them are Horemheb’s. In the Luxor Museum there is a statue of him from the 1989 cachette, kneeling before the god Atum, in near-perfect condition. How we label claims ## What is disputed Each claim below carries its evidence class. A claim marked interpretation or uncertain is not a weaker version of a fact — it is a different kind of statement, and the note says why. - Uncertain How long did Horemheb rule? The dates used here follow a longer chronology. Jacobus van Dijk’s study of wine-jar labels excavated in KV57 argues for about fourteen years, with burial by the beginning of year fifteen. The chart’s dates are a convention, not a resolution of that debate. - Interpretation That he held effective power during Tutankhamun’s reign. He was commander of the army and carried a string of senior titles under a child king, and it is a reasonable and widely held reading that he and Ay ran the country between them. It is a reading of the titles, not a statement in a document, and how power was divided between the two of them is not recoverable. - Uncertain That his wife Mutnodjmet was Nefertiti’s sister. A woman of that name appears in the Amarna reliefs beside Nefertiti, and identifying her with Horemheb’s queen would give a non-royal king a link to the previous house. The name is not rare and the identification is not established. Who added what ## Before and after [18th Dynasty **Tutankhamun** c.1336–1327 BCE A short reign, a remarkable burial and an extraordinary legacy for the study of ancient Egypt. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/pharaohs/tutankhamun) [18th Dynasty **Ay** c.1327–1323 BCE The courtier who outlived two kings and then wore the crown himself, briefly. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/pharaohs/ay) [18th Dynasty **Horemheb** c.1323–1295 BCE The general who took the throne and set about deleting the four reigns before him. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/pharaohs/horemheb) [19th Dynasty **Seti I** c.1294–1279 BCE A ruler whose finely worked reliefs reward a close look at Egyptian carving. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/pharaohs/seti-i) Tomb ## Their tomb No tomb in this directory is recorded to them. [Tomb directory](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/tombs) Continue reading ## Explore the connections 1–1 / 8 [Temple complex · East bank ### Karnak Temple Complex Two thousand years of building, rebuilding and royal ambition, gathered around the temples of Amun. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/karnak)[Temple · East bank ### Luxor Temple A temple of Amun in the heart of today’s city, shaped by royal ritual and the annual Opet festival. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/luxor-temple)[Necropolis · West bank ### Valley of the Kings The royal burial landscape of the New Kingdom: rock-cut tombs tucked into a desert valley, separate from the kings’ major commemorative temples. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/valley-of-the-kings)[Museum · East bank ### Luxor Museum A museum that brings objects from ancient Thebes into focus, from royal sculpture to reconstructed temple reliefs. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/luxor-museum)[God ### Amun The hidden god of Thebes, who became king of the gods and the state god of an empire. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/amun)[God ### Horus The falcon of kingship — the living king is Horus, and says so in his own titles. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/horus)[God ### Osiris Ruler of the dead, associated with restoration and renewal. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/osiris)[History ### The procession that explains Luxor Temple The Opet festival connected Karnak and Luxor Temple through a journey of divine images and royal renewal. ](https://luxor101.com/journal/the-procession-that-explains-luxor-temple) Sources & further reading 5 Tier 1 Jacobus van Dijk, “New Evidence on the Length of the Reign of Horemheb”, JARCE 44 (2008), pp. 193–200 Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt Tier 2 Amarna Sunset: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb and the Egyptian Counter-Reformation, Aidan Dodson American University in Cairo Press Tier 2 The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw Oxford University Press Tier 1 [The Epigraphic Survey — the recording of Medinet Habu and Luxor Temple](https://isac.uchicago.edu/research/publications/epigraphic-survey) Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, University of Chicago Official page indexed · checked 2026-09-19 Tier 2 The Complete Valley of the Kings, Nicholas Reeves and Richard H. Wilkinson Thames & Hudson Source review is incomplete. Consultation dates are shown only for checked references. Published works and institutional references for further reading. [Sources and review status](mailto:corrections@egyptmore.com?subject=Luxor101%20correction) [Pharaohs](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/pharaohs)