Sandstone relief block depicting the Kushite king Nebmaâtrê Amanikhareqerem, or Amanakhareqerema, from his temple at Naqa, Upper Nubia, Sudan, c. 1st to 2nd century AD, Meroitic Period.

Sandstone relief block depicting the Kushite king Nebmaâtrê Amanikhareqerem, or Amanakhareqerema, from his temple at Naqa, Upper Nubia, Sudan, c. 1st to 2nd century AD, Meroitic Period.   

The prenomen, Nebmaâtrê, indicates that Amanikhareqerem styled himself after the famous New Kingdom Egyptian pharaoh, Amenhotep III, who ruled both Egypt and Kush over 1400 years before Amanikhareqerem’s time and was revered by later Kushite kings, among other things, for his construction activities in Nubia, including the temple at Soleb. 

Amanikhareqerem himself was relatively unknown until more recent times when a series of excavations revealed some of his construction activities. He built a large Amun temple at el-Hassa with a processional avenue of rams, another temple in Naqa (N 200) and a large kiosk (B 560) in front of the Mammasi temple in the religious complex of Jebel Barkal, in Napata. He may have also constructed a new red brick building in the religious complex at Doukki Gel and may be responsible for a number of restoration projects of older temples. His tomb, the original ruined pyramid Beg N 16 which was remodeled several centuries later, is located in the royal necropolis of Begrawiya, on the outskirts of the ancient city of Meroë.