All you want to know about King Thutmose III

King Thutmose III is considered one of the most prominent rulers of Egypt. He was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty, the greatest ruler of Egypt and one of the most powerful emperors in history. He founded a modern Egyptian empire at that time, and that empire remained until about 1070 BC until the reign of Ramses XI.

King Thutmose III is called the Father of Empires, and he is also called the first emperor in history, as he is considered one of the outstanding geniuses in the history of the military throughout the ages. His military plans are studied in many military colleges and institutes all over the world, and he was the first to divide the army into a core and two wings.

About King Thutmose III

From Khoubr Ra, Thutmose III (sometimes called Thutmose the Great, 1425 BC) is the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. 

King Thutmose III ruled Egypt for approximately 54 years, and his reign is usually dated from April 28, 1479 BC. 

To March 11, 1425 BC, from his second year until his death at the age of fifty-six; However, during the first 22 years of his reign, his stepmother and his aunt, Hatshepsut, shared the throne with him, and she held the title of pharaoh.

While he appears first on surviving monuments, the usual royal names and insignia are assigned to both and neither is given any clear seniority over the other.

Thutmose was the commander of Hatshepsut’s armies during the last two years of his reign, and appointed his son and successor, Amenhotep II, as his co-throne.

The pharaoh became the sole ruler of the kingdom after the death of Thutmose II and Hatshepsut, establishing the largest empire Egypt had ever seen. 

At least 17 campaigns were launched and territories were conquered from Syria to Upper Nubia.

Upon the death of King Thutmose III, he was buried in the Valley of the Kings, as was the case with the rest of the kings of this period in Egypt. 

He is viewed, along with Ramesses II the Great, as one of the most powerful and famous rulers of ancient Egypt in the New Kingdom period of ancient Egypt, itself considered the pinnacle of Egyptian power.

Thutmose III was the son of Thutmose II from his second wife, East, and his father’s royal wife was Queen Hatshepsut. Her daughter was Neferure, a half-sister of Thutmose.

When King Thutmose II died, Thutmose III was too young to assume power.

Therefore, Queen Hatshepsut became regent, quickly shared her rule, and shortly after declared herself pharaoh while not denying ownership to King Thutmose III.

Thutmose III had limited authority over the empire while Hatshepsut exercised the official title of monarchy. Her rule was very prosperous and marked by great developments. 

When King Thutmose III reached a suitable age and showed the ability to rule, she appointed him to command her armies.

King Thutmose’s III military campaigns

Once Thutmose III ascended the throne, he was forced to confront the revolution that swept the allied Asian emirates, following the death of Hatshepsut.

This alliance, led by the Emir of Kadesh, was instigated by the Mitanni.

King Thutmose III was forced to carry out no less than seventeen military campaigns before he succeeded in controlling the tense situation. 

Mitanni is the political name by which the Hurrian civilization, contemporary with the Kassites in Babylon, was known.

Their empire was established on the ruins of the Hammurabi Empire, and it reached the height of its prosperity in the fifteenth century BC.

The heart of the empire is located in the area between the Tigris and Euphrates, south of Mount Taurus, and extends to include Syria and Kurdistan in the north, then reaches the land of Palestine, which is the region that witnessed the confrontation between the Mitanni and the Egyptians since the era of Ahmose.

When Hatshepsut died on the tenth day of the sixth month in the 21st year of the reign of Tuthmosis III, according to information from one witness in Armant, the King of Kadesh was advancing with his army to Megiddo.

Thutmose III rallied his army and left Egypt, passing through the border fortress of Tjaru (Silla), on the twenty-fifth day of the eighth month.

Thutmose marched his forces across the coastal plain to Jamnia, then across the interior to Yahm, a small city near Megiddo, which he reached in the middle of the ninth month of the same year.

The Battle of Megiddo was perhaps the largest battle of the 17 campaigns fought by Thutmose. A ridge protruding from Mount Carmel stood between Thutmose and Megiddo and he had three possible routes to capture it.

Military life of King Thutmose III

King Thutmose III took care of the army, made it regular, and provided it with knights and chariots. Also, during his reign, the ancient Egyptians mastered the manufacture of arrows and arrows thanks to him.

Unlike the reign of Thutmose, at the time when Hatshepsut was ruling, she followed a peaceful policy with the areas of Egyptian influence in Palestine and Nubia and with her neighbors.

It was concerned with the navy and sent naval expeditions to the country of Punt and to the coasts of Lebanon for trade exchange.

It took advantage of some protectorates in Syria and Mitanni to rebel against Egyptian rule.

As soon as Thutmose III ascended the throne after the death of Hatshepsut, he had to restore Egyptian control over those areas to secure the country’s borders.

Thutmose launched sixteen military campaigns against Asia (the region of Syria and Palestine), through which he was able to establish his influence there, just as he established Egypt’s influence as far south as Nubia.

Architectural works of King Thutmose III

Thutmose III built many temples in Thebes, including two temples, one of which is next to the Temple of Hatshepsut in Deir el-Bahri.

He also built the sixth and seventh giant gates and the celebration hall in the Karnak Temple and completed the construction of the Temple of Habu, which Hatshepsut had begun.

He built a temple for the god Ptah in his homeland in Memphis. The temple contains three rooms: the first is for Ptah, the second is for Hathor, the goddess of Thebes, and the third is for the goddess Sekhmet, wife of Ptah, where she is represented by a statue of her with the head of a lioness surmounted by a sun disk. 

He has a temple in Amda and Samna. He built a temple in Elephantine for the goddess Set, and it has monuments. In Kom Ombo, Edfu, Ain Shams and Arment.

King Thutmose III erected no less than seven obelisks, most of which are now in a number of capitals of the world, including the obelisk in London (it is one of two obelisks that Thutmose III erected in front of the Temple of the Sun in Heliopolis. 

A Greek engineer named Pentius transported them to Alexandria to be placed in front of the Temple of Isis.

It is worth noting that King Thutmose III established one of the oldest empires in history, and it was the furthest border of Egypt in its history, as Egypt’s borders reached the Euphrates River and Syria in the east, and Libya in the west, and the coasts of Phenicia and Cyprus in the north, and to the sources of the Nile in the south, until the Fourth Cataract.