An outline, era by era

New Kingdom

Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, Ramesses II

Bronze Age · ~3300 – ~1200 BCE

The New Kingdom was the age of Egypt's greatest wealth and power, lasting from about 1550 to 1070 BCE, during the 18th, 19th and 20th Dynasties. It began when the rulers of Thebes drove out the Hyksa rulers of the Delta and reunited the country. Egypt then built an empire reaching south into Nubia and east into Syria and Canaan, and the pharaoh became a figure of international diplomacy and war.

Four rulers stand out. Hatshepsut ruled as king in her own right for about two decades in the 15th century BCE. Akhenaten, around 1350 BCE, promoted the worship of the sun disk, the Aten, and moved the capital to Amarna. His successor Tutankhamun restored the old gods and died young, and his tomb was found almost intact in 1922. Ramesses II ruled for about 66 years in the 13th century BCE, fought the Hittites at Kadesh, and later made a treaty with them. After about 1100 BCE central power weakened and the period ended.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. Ahmose expels the Hyksos and reunites Egypt

    Event

    What happened

    In the mid-16th century BCE the Theban kings of the 17th Dynasty, Seqenenre Tao and Kamose, fight the Hyksos rulers who control the Delta from their capital Avaris. Kamose raids deep into Hyksos territory, and his campaign is recorded on inscribed stelae set up at Karnak. His brother Ahmose I then captures Avaris, around 1530 to 1520 BCE by the usual chronologies, and pursues the Hyksos into southern Canaan, where he besieges Sharuhen.

    The rest is history

    Ahmose's victory reunited Egypt under a single Theban king and is taken as the start of the 18th Dynasty and the New Kingdom. He also campaigned south against Nubia and restored royal authority at home. His successors carried the fighting further, building an empire reaching into Nubia and Syria. The wars gave Egypt a standing army and a warrior kingship, and the pharaoh was ever after shown as a conqueror. The career of Ahmose son of Ibana, a soldier who served under Ahmose I and later kings, is told in his tomb inscription at El-Kab. Exact dates for these reigns are debated, differing by a few decades between chronologies.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryCarnarvon Tablet I and the Kamose Stelae. Egyptian hieratic writing board and stelae from Karnak, 17th Dynasty, c. 1550 BCE.
    2. PrimaryAutobiographical inscription of Ahmose son of Ibana. Tomb inscription, El-Kab, 18th Dynasty, c. 1500 BCE.
    3. BookBourriau, Janine. "The Second Intermediate Period (c. 1650-1550 BC)." In The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.Covers the Hyksos period and the Theban war of reunification.

  2. Thutmose III wins at Megiddo

    Event

    What happened

    In the 23rd year of his reign, around 1457 BCE by the usual chronologies, Thutmose III marches an Egyptian army north into Canaan against a coalition of Syrian and Canaanite princes led by the king of Kadesh. Against the advice of some of his officers, he leads his army through the narrow Aruna pass and surprises the enemy at Megiddo. The coalition is defeated and withdraws into the walled city, which surrenders after a siege of several months. The campaign is recorded by army scribes and carved on the walls of the Karnak temple.

    The rest is history

    Megiddo opened the way for Thutmose III's many later campaigns in Syria, which he led over about twenty years, and the Canaanite and Syrian princes became tribute-paying vassals of Egypt. Egypt's empire in western Asia, begun under his predecessors, was now firmly established. The Annals of Thutmose III at Karnak give an unusually detailed account of the campaigns, and the battle is one of the earliest in history known in such detail. Egyptian control of Canaan lasted for about three centuries, and the later diplomacy of Akhenaten's Amarna Letters and the wars of Ramesses II with the Hittites took place within this empire. Exact dates for the reign are debated, differing by a few decades between chronologies.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryAnnals of Thutmose III. Hieroglyphic inscription, Temple of Amun, Karnak, 18th Dynasty, c. 1450 BCE.
    2. BookRedford, Donald B. The Wars in Syria and Palestine of Thutmose III. Leiden: Brill, 2003.Detailed study of the campaigns, including Megiddo.
    3. BookLichtheim, Miriam. Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume II: The New Kingdom. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976.

  3. Hatshepsut's divine birth

    Origin story

    The legend

    The god Amun takes the form of the king Thutmose I and visits the queen, who conceives Hatshepsut. The god Khnum shapes the child on his potter's wheel, and Amun declares her his daughter and the rightful ruler of Egypt. Hatshepsut is presented to the court as king.

    The rest is history

    The scenes are carved on the walls of Hatshepsut's temple at Deir el-Bahari, built in the 15th century BCE. They were not a record of events but political messaging. Hatshepsut began as regent for her young stepson Thutmose III, then took the full titles of king around seven years into the reign. The divine birth story, like others used by later kings, justified a woman holding an office normally held by men. Late in the reign of Thutmose III, many of her images and names were hacked out, though this happened some twenty years after her death and its motive is debated.

    Sources

    1. BookRoth, Ann Macy, and others. Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005.Catalogue of the exhibition, with essays on her rise and the erasure of her monuments.
    2. BookTyldesley, Joyce. Hatchepsut: The Female Pharaoh. London: Viking, 1996.
    3. PrimaryBirth scenes and inscriptions of Hatshepsut. Temple reliefs, Deir el-Bahari, 18th Dynasty, c. 1470 BCE.

  4. Hatshepsut's expedition to Punt

    Heroic tale

    The legend

    Guided by the god Amun, Queen Hatshepsut sends five ships down the Red Sea to the fabled land of Punt. The sailors return with incense trees, gold, ebony and exotic animals, and the trees are planted at her temple.

    The rest is history

    The expedition is real and is shown in detail on the walls of her temple at Deir el-Bahari, around 1460 BCE. The reliefs show ships, the Puntite ruler and his wife, and trees carried in baskets. Egyptians had visited Punt earlier, so it was not a first, but the carvings made it a signature achievement of the reign. Punt is thought to lie somewhere around the southern Red Sea coast, in the region of present-day Sudan, Eritrea or Ethiopia, but its exact place is debated.

    Sources

    1. BookNaville, Édouard. The Temple of Deir el Bahari. London: Egypt Exploration Fund, 1895-1908.Early publication of the Punt reliefs.
    2. BookKitchen, Kenneth A. Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of Ramesses II. Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1982.

  5. Akhenaten and Nefertiti, the heretic king and queen

    Popular belief

    The legend

    Akhenaten, a strange and visionary pharaoh, abolishes the old gods and invents the first monotheistic religion. Some tell that he inspired Moses, and that Egyptians erased his memory in horror.

    The rest is history

    Akhenaten, who ruled around 1353 to 1336 BCE, did promote the Aten, the sun disk, and founded a new capital at Akhetaten, now Amarna. He had other gods' names and images attacked, so the religion was exclusive in practice, though the king and queen Nefertiti were themselves worshipped alongside the Aten, and whether this is true monotheism is debated. The link with Moses was proposed by Sigmund Freud in 1939, and has no support in the evidence. After his death the city was abandoned, the old gods returned, and his name was left out of later king lists. The Amarna Letters, clay tablets found there in 1887, show his court's diplomacy with other states.

    Sources

    1. BookReeves, Nicholas. Akhenaten: Egypt's False Prophet. London: Thames & Hudson, 2001.
    2. BookMoran, William L. The Amarna Letters. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.Standard English translation of the Amarna tablets.
    3. BookAssmann, Jan. Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997.Traces the idea linking Akhenaten and Moses.

  6. The curse of Tutankhamun

    Popular belief

    The legend

    When Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon open the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922, they unleash an ancient curse. Carnarvon dies soon after, and others who entered the tomb are said to meet strange deaths.

    The rest is history

    Carter found the tomb in November 1922 in the Valley of the Kings, and Carnarvon died in April 1923 of an infected mosquito bite that developed into blood poisoning. Newspapers, eager for stories after exclusive deals with The Times, spread the idea of a curse. No curse inscription was found in the tomb, and Carter himself lived until 1939. Studies of the people who entered the tomb have found no unusual early deaths. Tutankhamun, who died around 1323 BCE in his late teens, was a minor king whose tomb survived because it was hidden beneath debris from later tombs.

    Sources

    1. BookCarter, Howard, and A. C. Mace. The Tomb of Tut-ankh-Amen. London: Cassell, 1923-1933.
    2. BookReeves, Nicholas. The Complete Tutankhamun. London: Thames & Hudson, 1990.
    3. ArticleNelson, Mark R. "The Mummy's Curse: Historical Cohort Study." British Medical Journal 325 (2002): 1482-1484.Found no difference in survival between those present and those absent.

  7. Ramesses II wins at Kadesh

    Heroic tale

    The legend

    At Kadesh, the Hittite army ambushes the Egyptians and the divisions of Ramesses II scatter. Alone in his chariot, the king calls on Amun, charges the enemy and routs the Hittites single-handed. He returns home a victorious hero.

    The rest is history

    The battle took place around 1274 BCE, and Ramesses II recorded it on temple walls at Abu Simbel, Luxor, Karnak and the Ramesseum, and in a poem preserved on papyri. His own account is boastful. Egyptian forces were caught off guard and he did escape, but the Hittites were not defeated and Kadesh stayed out of Egyptian hands. About 16 years later, around 1259 BCE, Ramesses and the Hittite king Hattusili III agreed a treaty, one of the earliest known peace treaties. Versions survive in Egyptian hieroglyphs and in Akkadian on clay tablets from the Hittite capital.

    Sources

    1. BookKitchen, Kenneth A. Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of Ramesses II. Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1982.
    2. BookLichtheim, Miriam. Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume II: The New Kingdom. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976.Includes the Kadesh poem and the Egyptian-Hittite treaty.
    3. PrimaryThe Poem of Pentaur (Kadesh Poem). Egyptian hieratic papyri and temple inscriptions, 19th Dynasty, c. 1274 BCE.

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