Thutmose IV is best known for the "Dream Stela" that lies between the paws of the Great Sphinx at Giza. He believed that hew as destined to become pharaoh because of a dream that he had, which told him that he would be pharaoh if he cleared away the sand from the Sphinx at the request of the god Horemakhet.

Most likely, this was to support his kingship with the appropriate religious trappings that seem to surround New Kingdom pharaohs.

Unlike his father and grandfather, Thutmose IV was not much of a military leader and in fact he had fewer military commanders during his reign, replacing them with a larger cadre of beauracrat, both religious and civil. "Big Government" seems to have been an ancient problem as well.

While the listing of his monuments is long, he built very little on his own and instead enlarged and renovated the temples and monuments of his predecessors. He did built a mud brick temple for himself just south of the Ramesseum, and an alabaster shrine at Karnak.

He tomb is in the Valley of the Kings (KV43) was found in 1903 by Carter (who discovered the tomb of King Tutankhamun). It had already been looted, of course, but appears to have been unfinished at the time of Thutmose IV's death. It was hastily finished. Decorations in he burial chamber on the south were added by Horemheb and refers to the robbery of the tomb and Horemheb's attempt to fix the damage.

Tombs from his reign include those of Yuya and Thuya, Nakht, and Menna in the Valley of the Nobles. There is not much to see in the tomb of Yuya and Thuya -- the contents of their tomb is in the Egyptian Museum of Cairo. Nakht was the overseer of the vineyards and granaries. IN his tomb, all representations of him are obliterated (his eyes gouged out). The inner chamber door is faux painted to look like aswan granite, although true granite is not used in the tomb itself.

Menna's tomb is a fine private tomb for the "Scribe of the Fields of the Lord of the Two Lands". He probably worked in the temple of Amun at Karnak as the Field Overseer of Amun.

pharaohs

Ahmose
Amenhotep I
Thutmose I
Thutmose II
Hatshepsut
Thutmose III
Amenhotep II
Thutmose IV
Amenhotep III
Amenhotep IV
Smenkhkare
Tutankhamun
Ay
Horemheb

monuments

Lateran Obelisk
Tomb KV 43, Valley of the Kings
Tomb of Menna,
Tomb of Nakht,
Tomb of Yuya and Thuya, Valley of the Nobles