Expanding the empire

The successor to Amenhotep I was Thutmose I, who was no relation to the former pharaoh but had been a general in his army. Thutmose (ruled c. 1504-1492 BCE) was a warrior-king who extended Egypt’s borders. He occupied and subdued the whole of the Levant, establishing his furthest frontier on the Euphrates River. In the south, he conquered Upper Nubia and occupied Kush as far south as the fourth cataract. By the end of his reign, the New Kingdom had reached its greatest extent. Egypt’s new territories made a huge contribution to its enormous wealth.

In 1492 BCE, Thutmose II succeeded his father. Because he was only the son of a minor wife, Thutmose married his half sister Hatshepsut to consolidate his claim to the throne. On Thutmose’s death, around 1479 BCE, Thutmose III, who was still a child, ascended the throne. He ruled the country nominally, while his stepmother Hatshepsut acted as regent.

Six years into the reign of Thutmose III, Hatshepsut arranged to have herself proclaimed pharaoh. According to one version of the story, she saw the statue of Amon move toward her during a procession and took that as a sign that he had selected her to rule. Thutmose II had earlier claimed to be selected by a similar process when he was not the only candidate for the throne.

Because, according to tradition, a woman could not succeed to the throne, Hatshepsut and Thutmose III reigned jointly. Their names are both inscribed in a cartouche, an oval frame in which the names of Egyptian kings were recorded, but it is clear that Hatshepsut played the dominant role.

Even though the Hyksos had been expelled from the realm more than half a century earlier, Hatshepsut claimed that it was only her rule that had put an end to the chaos of the Hyksos era. In order to celebrate this achievement, Hatshepsut embarked on a great building program to glorify her reign, including obelisks in Karnak and a magnificent funerary temple in Deir el-Bahri.