|
| 
|
Thutmose
III was co-regent with Hatshepsut and then became a warrior Pharaoh
Thutmose III (also written as Tuthmosis III)
was Pharaoh of Egypt in the Eighteenth Dynasty. He ruled from 1479
BC to 1426 BC.
Thutmose III was the son of Pharaoh Thutmose II and Isis, a minor
wife. When Thutmose II died in 1479 BC, Thutmose III became ruler.
However, he shared power from the beginning of his reign with Hatshepsut,
his father's wife, who acted as regent and eventually as the dominant
co-ruler.
|
| Portrait
by
Winifred Brunton |
For approximately 22 years Thutmose
III had little power over the empire. He married Hatshepsut's youngest
daughter, Meritre, with whom he had a son named Amenhotep II.
With the death of Hatshepsut, Thutmose
III ruled by himself until his death in 1426 BC.
Thutmose was an active expansionist ruler, sometimes referred to as the
Napoleon of Egypt, because he was recorded to have captured 350 cities
during his rule, conquering much of the Near East, from the Euphrates
to Nubia. He was the first Pharaoh to cross the Euphrates, during his
campaign against the Hanilgalbat.
Thutmose III made a total of 17 known military campaigns. He defeated
a large Canaanite coalition under the King of Kadesh in the Battle of
Megiddo. After victory in battle he conquered Megiddo after a siege of
7 or 8 months.
Thutmose III's tomb in the Valley of the Kings (KV34) is the first in
which we find the complete Amduat, an important New Kingdom funerary text.
|