Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh. Born to Pharaoh Tuthmosis IV and his principal wife, Mutemwiya, it is probable that Amenhotep succeeded to the throne as a child, sometime between the ages of six and twelve years. He was the fifth ruler of the 18th dynasty, ruling between c. 1390 BC and 1353 BC. Amenhotep married in year two of his reign. Queen Tiy seems to have played an important part in his public and private life. She appeared on monuments more often and more prominently than any queen before her. Amenhotep had at least six of his children with Tiy including two sons and four daughters. His eldest son, Tuthmosis, died early leaving the succession to Amenhotep IV, better known to history as Akhenaten. By about year 25 of Amenhotep's reign, all military difficulties afflicting the kingdom seem to have been settled, and a long period of great building and high art ensued, long regarded as one of Egypt's most prosperous and stable periods during which Egypt reached the heights of artistic and international power. Amenhotep's extensive diplomatic correspondence, especially with Mitanni and Babylonia, is preserved in the Amarna tablets, consisting of 400 clay tablets found in Amarna in 1887. The Pharaoh built or rebuilt many temples in the country at Luxor, Memphis, Elkab, and Armant. At Thebes he had an immense temple constructed to his own cult. It is probable that Amenhotep was deified during his own lifetime. Amenhotep was apparently insistent that he be identified with this sun god in contemporary art. Scholars believe Amenhotep probably died about the 39th year of his rule, aged perhaps between forty-five and fifty years old. Queen Tiy apparently outlived him by as many as a dozen years. His tomb was discovered by Prosper Jollois and Édouard de Villiers du Terrage, engineers with Napoleon's expedition to Egypt in August 1799. His mummy, removed from its tomb in antiquity, has never been positively identified. His name has also been recorded as Amenophis.