The history of ancient Egypt dates back more than 5,000 years, and the greatest men and women that this civilization had to offer were able to change the course of history and create an immortal and heavenly legacy. Explore all the information about these ancient Egyptian Pharaohs and see how Egypt’s great civilization transformed over the years. Here are the top ancient Egyptian leaders.
King Menes {Narmer}
King Narmer was one of the top ancient Egyptian Leaders and the ruler who united the lands of Upper and Lower Egypt, and whose rule lasted 62 years, when he crowned himself as the first king of the first central king in 3150 BC, as recorded in the Narmer Stela.
He recorded this great event on his painting located in the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, and the painting consists of two sides. We find Narmer’s name written in a small square, the king wears a white crown and holds the heads of one of his enemies by his collective hair, and on the other side we see the king wearing a red crown, which means that he has become the ruler of both lands.
King Zoser {Djoser}
King Djoser is the Pharaoh of the Third Dynasty, whose rule lasted from 19 to 28 years from 3686 to 2648 BC. He was the builder of the first pyramid in Egypt. The step pyramid in Saqqara was his tomb as part of his funerary complex during the Third Dynasty. His pyramid in the Saqqara complex contains a limestone statue. It is located on the first floor of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and it is considered one of the museum’s master pieces because it is the first life-sized statue in ancient Egypt. It is now located in the Grand Egyptian Museum.
King Snefru
King Sneferu was one of the pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty, and his rule lasted between 24 and 30 years from 2600 BC. He is the builder of the first real pyramid in Dahshur and is open to all visitors. He is responsible for the construction of the three pyramids which introduced a great deal of innovation. The most famous pyramid is the Red Pyramid which serves as his tomb.
King Khufu {Cheops}
King Khufu is the son of King Sneferu. He ruled Egypt for more than 23 years during the Fourth Dynasty from 2589 to 2566 BC. He was the builder of the Great Pyramid, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which is known for its unusually large size and because the burial chamber is located in the middle of the pyramid and not at the bottom. . It contains about 2,300,000 stone blocks, each weighing about 2.5 tons.
King Khafra {Chephren}
King Khufu is the son of King Sneferu. One of top ancient Egyptian leaders and ruled Egypt for more than 23 years during the Fourth Dynasty from 2589 to 2566 BC. He was the builder of the Great Pyramid, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which is known for its unusually large size and because the burial chamber is located in the middle of the pyramid and not at the bottom. It contains about 2,300,000 stone blocks, each weighing about 2.5 tons.
King Menkaure {Mycerinus}
King Menkaure one of top ancient Egyptian leaders and ruled Egypt from 2532 to 2503 during the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom. He was the builder of the third pyramid in the Giza complex. He had only one daughter who died during his lifetime, so he buried her in a golden coffin inside the pyramid, but it was stolen by grave robbers a long time ago.
King Pepi II
King Pepi II, also known as Nefer Ka Ra, was a pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty, during the Egyptian Old Kingdom, from 2278 to 2184 BC. One of top ancient Egyptian leaders who ruled Egypt for a long period, many historians say 94 years, while others say 64 years. The first half of his reign appears to have been prosperous with trade with various places. During the latter part of his reign, the power of local officials grew and they began to establish small kingdoms. The second half of Pepi II’s reign was a period of economic crisis. Circumstances forced him to establish an economic supervisor in Upper Egypt.
King Senusret I
King Senusret I, also known as “Kheper Ka Ra” & “Sesostres I” , was a king of Egypt who ruled during the Twelfth Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom. His reign from 1971 to 1926 BC was a period of peace and no records of military campaigns have been found so far. Senusret I was the first pharaoh to begin irrigating the Faiyum to open up more land for agriculture. He has many statues displayed in the Grand Egyptian Museum, all of which are in a very good state of preservation. He also built the pyramid and funerary complex in Lahun.
King Ahmos I
King Ahmos I was a member of the Theban royal family at that time. His father was king Sekenenra. He was one of top ancient Egyptian leaders and the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty that began in the New Kingdom of Egypt and its rule continued for 25 years from 1549 to 1524 BC. The reunification of Egypt began after the Second Intermediate Period. He fought battles in Egypt, Palestine, and Kush in his quest to banish the Hyksos and their culture. Ahmose began building projects in Memphis and in his religious capital. The location of his tomb is unknown, but his mummy was part of the Deir el-Bahri royal mummy.
King Amenhotep I
King Amenhotep I was from the Eighteenth Dynasty, during the New Kingdom. He was the son of Ahmose I, and he continued his father’s urban projects and military campaigns. He was one of the top ancient Egyptian leaders and his rule lasted for 20 years from 1525 to 1504 BC. Amenhotep I’s military campaigns brought many treasures that allowed the pharaoh to finance his building projects. The workers at Deir el-Medina had worshiped him and his mother as their patron deities for centuries. Deir el-Medina was the city where the government workers who built the Valley of the Kings lived. During that period, it became a rule that royal females could only marry a king.
King Thutmose II
King Thutmose II was one of the rulers of the Eighteenth Dynasty in the era of the New Kingdom, and consider one of the top ancient Egyptian leaders, and his rule lasted from 1493 until 1479 BC. His father is King Tuthmosis I. His mummy, which was found in the royal cache in the Temple of Hatshepsut, showed signs of weakness and diseases that caused his death.
Queen Hatshepsut
Queen Hatshepsut was one of top ancient Egyptian leaders and a pharaoh from the Eighteenth Dynasty and is considered one of the powerful pharaohs of ancient Egypt who ruled Egypt during the New Kingdom era from 1481 to 1472 BC, and the first woman to rule Egypt when her husband (Thutmose II) died because of his son.
Thutmose III’s son was a young child. She began her reign as queen regent but became pharaoh. Queen Hatshepsut expanded Egyptian trade and supervised ambitious construction projects, most notably the Deir el-Bahri Temple, “the Temple of Hatshepsut.” She claimed to be the daughter of Amun and was transformed into a king by wearing symbols of royalty as depicted in her magnificent temple in Luxor.
King Thutmose III
King Tuthmose III ruled Egypt during the Eighteenth Dynasty of the New Kingdom from 1479 to 1425 BC, which lasted for more than 40 years. He carried out military campaigns in the Levant and conquered most of Palestine. The name of Hatshepsut and her monuments were not defamed until the end of the reign of Thutmose III. He built and expanded many monuments and amassed enormous wealth from his military campaigns. In addition, he owns a large collection of statues that are now in the Egyptian Museum.
King Amenhotep II
King Amenhotep II was one of ancient Egyptian leaders and the rulers of the Eighteenth Dynasty, during the New Kingdom era, whose rule lasted from 1427 to 1401 BC, and he shared regent ship with his father, Thutmose III. Complete the humiliation of Hatshepsut’s monuments to end any claims by her family to the right to rule. Amenhotep II ruled for nearly thirty years and his portraits show him as an athletic man.
King Amenhotep IV
King Amenhotep IV “Akhenaten” was one of the pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty, and ruled Egypt during the New Kingdom from 1353 to 1336 BC. For less than twenty years, his rule had a significant impact as he wanted to impose monotheism through the worship of only Aten, the sun god, despite the polytheistic nature of Egypt at that time.
Akhenaten assumed the throne at a time when the priests of Amun were even more wealthy and powerful than the king himself. In the fifth year of his reign, Akhenaten built a temple to the Aten at Karnak during the first few years of his reign and a new capital at Amarna called Akhetaten, which is located in Minya, about 350 km south of Cairo.
He changed his name and declared Aten the only god in Egypt. The army supported this move early in its rule, but many people still worshiped the ancient gods in private. His wife Nefertiti was an important part of his religious revolution, in addition to the rituals and depictions of sacrifices found at Amarna.
King Tutankhamun
King Tutankhamun was the youngest pharaoh of ancient Egypt who ruled Egypt from the Eighteenth Dynasty, during the New Kingdom era from 1334 to 1325 BC, and the top of ancient Egyptian leaders, and the most famous pharaoh throughout the world.
He is the son of Akhenaten, and he became pharaoh when he was nine years old. During the first year of his reign, Tutankhamun left Amarna, remade Thebes his capital, and restored the worship of the ancient gods. His guardian was Horemheb, who was a senior military official. King Tutankhamun regained the power of Thebes and died after about ten years of rule.
Later, the scribes excluded his name from many lists of kings, and people forgot his rule. For this reason, tomb robbers never found his tomb in the Valley of the Kings because it was so well hidden. His treasures and body were found in the Valley of the Kings in 1920 and were transferred to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and then to the Grand Egyptian Museum.
King Ramses I
King Ramses I was the first ruler and founder of the Nineteenth Dynasty, during the New Kingdom era from 1292 to 1290 BC. He was an older man when he became pharaoh, and the birth of his son Seti I occurred before his ascension. He ruled for less than a year and appointed his son as his heir immediately after assuming the throne. He was able to create a state of stability that helped shape the best periods of time in Egypt’s history.
King Seti I
King Seti I was the son of Ramesses I and father of Ramesses II. He was one of the pharaohs of the Nineteenth Dynasty and ruler of the New Kingdom. He consider one of top ancient Egyptian leaders his rule lasted from 1290 to 1279 BC. He restored traditional temples and opened ancient mines to raise money for construction projects and military atonements. The length of his reign was about eleven years, and his tomb is located in the Valley of the Kings.
King Ramses II
Ramesses II sat on the thrones of Egypt in 1279 BC, at the age of 25, after the death of his father, Seti I, and his rule lasted 67 years until 1213 BC. He was able to develop a strong economy and maintain Egypt’s prosperity for a long time.
He built many temples inside the land of Karnak, such as the Temple of Khonsu, the Great Temple of Abu Simbel in Aswan, and the Hypostyle Hall in the Karnak Temple Complex. He protected his empire against many enemies such as the Libyans, Syrians, Nubians, and Hittites during the Battle of Kadesh in 1275 BC, which ended in the first documented peace treaty.
He had about 200 wives, the most famous of whom was his beloved and main wife, Nefertari, with whom he had about 111 sons and 51 daughters. He declared himself a god before the tenth year of his reign and outlived his twelve eldest sons. He died in 1213 BC at the age of 90, and his body was buried in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, then it was transferred to the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
King Merenptah
King Merneptah was the thirteenth son of Ramesses II, and one of ancient Egyptian leaders and he ruled during the Nineteenth Dynasty of the New Kingdom, whose rule lasted from 1213 to 1203 BC. He campaigned in Palestine and his stele contains the first written mention of Israel. After he defeated the Libyan invasion, his rule was peaceful and he built a number of temples. Merneptah must have been older when he began his rule because it only lasted nine years.
King Ramses III
King Ramesses III was one of the rulers of the Twentieth Dynasty of the New Kingdom, whose rule lasted from 1186 until 1155 BC. He consider to be one of the top ancient Egyptian leaders. Records show that he was not a relative of the previous Ramesses family, although he bore their name. After the death of his predecessor Twosret’s, there was a period of chaos that was ended by Sethnakht, father of Ramesses III. He had to fight many invaders trying to take advantage of Egypt’s internal unrest.
He built a funerary temple in the Theban necropolis and many other structures. He reorganized the temple administrations and allocated land. By the end of the thirty-one-year reign of Ramesses III, a third of the agricultural land was owned by the temples, causing food shortages and leading to one of the first recorded strikes of Deir el-Medina workers. It also weakened the power of the pharaoh and the central government.
The aforementioned kings are the most famous and important kings who had a great influence on Egyptian history and civilization.
Succession
It is also important to mention that royal lineage was usually from father to son, but the role of mothers and queens was equally important because the successor was only the son of the king by the principal royal wife. Throughout Egyptian history, the role of queen was a symbol of creating power and rebirth.
You can discover more about this timeless Pharaonic civilization by booking one of our best tour packages in Egypt and visiting amazing tourist attractions such as the Karnak Temple, the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut and the Valley of the Kings, on board a Nile River cruise that contains the history and heritage of Egypt. These are eternal names.