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| Hatshepsut depicted in a frieze |
The New Kingdom saw the reign of some of Ancient Egypt's most
powerful and charismatic pharaohs.
The word pharaoh comes from the Egyptian 'per-aa', meaning 'great house' and referred to the royal palace. Only quite late in the New Kingdom did it come to refer to the king himself.
Like other kings, the pharaoh sat at the top of the social and political order, acted as commander-in-chief and controlled all military occupations. But the pharaoh was much more than just the head of state. He also helped maintain 'Maat' - the divine order in the world. Without the pharaoh, The Egyptians believed that the world would descend into chaos.
The pharaohs of the New Kingdom show how individual strengths and
weaknesses could affect the fortunes of the Egyptian empire. Ahmose
successfully expelled the Hyksos from Northern Egypt and defeated
the Nubians to the south, while Hatshepsut
used her cunning to overcome her gender, tame her army and boost her
own reputation.
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| Click on the image for a gallery view |
Tuthmosis III was forced to wait for
20 years before becoming king, but wasted no time: his victory at
Megiddo saw Thebes become one of the richest and most powerful cities
in the ancient world. Amenhotep III
avoided the need for war altogether through a clever combination of
diplomacy, marriage and gold. But his son, Akenhaten,
nearly threw it all away by his religious obsession and persecution
of other gods.
This would not last. His son, Tutankhamen,
abandoned Egypt's new capital, Amarna, and overturned his father's
heresy, before dying mysteriously at the age of just 19. Finally,
the propaganda, diplomacy and monumental building programs of Ramesses
II made him the ultimate pharaoh. His death, however, would mark
the beginning of the end for the Egyptian empire.
Where to next:
Egyptian Society
Religion in the New Kingdom
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