The kingship reverted to Thutmose III alone sometime in the twentieth or twenty-first year of Hatshepsut’s reign. He then wasted little time in establishing a reputation both for himself and for Egypt that was to be remembered a millennium later, if somewhat imperfectly. Thutmose III must have carefully assessed his situation as a now mature but unproven ruler and, no doubt with counsel from associates and fellow military colleagues, identified the potential for glory and wealth lying to the north-east. The rewards of conquering Nubia could not belong to Thutmose III, and Hatshepsut had reaped what there was from establishing contact with Punt. The new locale for quick gains was the Levant, where Egypt might gain control of the trade routes that had until then been dominated by Syrian, Cypriot, Palestinian, and Aegean rulers and traders. At the end of some seventeen years of military campaigns, Thutmose III had successfully established Egyptian dominance over Palestine and had made strong inroads into southern Syria. His own reputation was assured, and the proceeds were extravagantly expended on behalf of the temples of Amun and other gods, as well as on those men who followed the king on his quests.
The king did not dishonour the name and monuments of Hatshepsut until the last years of his reign, but instead attempted to fill the landscape of the Nile Valley with reminders of his own reign. It is interesting to note that the artistic style and portraiture of Thutmose III are extremely difficult to differentiate from those of Hatshepsut in her later monuments. Only in his body type did Thutmose choose to be shown somewhat differently, for his images routinely show him with broader shoulders and a heavier upper torso than Hatshepsut in both relief and statuary, and this more virile body type was the one used later by Amenhotep II. The face of Thutmose III continued the ‘Thutmoside’ profile seen already with Thutmose I, comprising a long nose with slight hump and downtumed end, broad at the base. The mouth was wide, with a protruding upper lip due to the overbite that ran in the family.
Thutmose III used his thirty-two years of sole rule to make his name prominent throughout Egypt and Nubia. He was active at Gebel Barkal at the farthest southern point in Nubia, at Sai, Pnubs at the third cataract, Semna, Kumma, Uronarti, Buhen, Quban, Amada, Faras, and Ellesiya, as well as several other locations where blocks are known in his name. His monuments further north are well attested at Elephantine, where he built a temple to the goddess Satet of the first-cataract region, at Kom Ombo, Edfu, Elkab, Tod, Armant, Thebes, Akhmim, Hermopolis, and Heliopolis. A statue of the overseer of works, Minmose, active in the later reign of Thutmose III, listed cult sites at which he worked. He named, in addition to the places mentioned already, Medamud, Asyut, Atfih, and a number of localities in the Delta, including Buto, Busiris, and Chemmis. Although no buildings of Thutmose III have yet been identified in the Delta, Minmose’s inscription suggests that he and earlier i8th-Dynasty kings may well have been active there.
Kamak continued to be a favoured site. Thutmose III somewhat ruthlessly restructured the central areas of the temple, removing Amenhotep Ts cult chapels of limestone and replacing them in sandstone. Soon after beginning his period of sole rule, he inaugurated the construction of his major building in Karnak: ‘[Thutmose III is] Effective of Monuments’ (akh menu). The overall theme of the relief scenes in the building concerns the renewal of Thutmose Ill’s kingship, primarily through the sed-festival, which he first celebrated in the thirtieth year of his reign. The veneration of kingship generally fitted well with this purpose for the building and connected it with the chapels around the central court. Later in his reign, Thutmose III had the entire central area redecorated with scenes and particularly inscriptions detailing his campaigns in Asia. These Annals, inscribed in the forty-second year of his reign, have become the primary historical record of the king’s conquests, containing, as they do, specific episodes of the warfare and lists of booty taken. The enrichment of the Amim temple was enormous as described in the Annals: the buildings alone were numerous. The Sixth and Seventh Pylons were added by the king, the latter covered with scenes and inscriptions naming the places over which he claimed mastery. A temple to the god Ptah was built on the north side of the precinct, and a granite bark shrine was made for the centre of the temple, as well as an Egyptian alabaster one later joined to a shrine of Thutmose IV (1400-1390 bc) and set near the Fourth Pylon. Transformations to the works of Hatshepsut also took place in the reign of Thutmose III and were completed by his son Amenhotep II, but even without these the activity was unceasing. The king’s high priests of Amun included the energetic Menkheperraseneb, owner of Theban tomb 86, his nephew of the same name (TT 112), and Amenemhat (TT 97). Amenemhat was probably Thutmose Ill’s last high priest of Amun and largely in service under Amenhotep II, after Menkheperraseneb handed over the office to his nephew for a brief period.
The high priests were responsible not only for Karnak, but for works on Amun’s behalf on the west bank as well. Thutmose III was extremely active at Medinet Habu, where he completed the small temple to Amun and also built a memorial temple for his father just to the north. Late in his reign, he converted an elevated shrine at Deir el-Bahri into his own chapel called ‘Sacred Horizon’ {djeser akhet). The tomb of Thutmose III in the Valley of the Kings (KV 34) was hewn high in a cliff, descending deep into the rock face. The walls of the burial chamber are covered with black - and red-painted hieratic renditions of the netherworld texts: the Litany of Ra, which calls upon the names of the sun-god to aid the king in his afterlife journeys, and the Book of what is in the Netherworld (Amduat), which provided the king with a map of the underworld and spells to help him achieve eternal justification.
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