(1504 B.C. -1450 B.C.)
Menkheperre Tuthmosis III was the son of Tuthmosis II
and a lesser wife. Upon the death of his father, he ascended the throne in 1504 B.C. at the approximate age often. For twenty
years, his stepmother/aunt, Queen-Pharaoh Makare Hatshepsut, served as his co-regent.
The dates of Tuthmosis III's reign
are variously provided by different historians, Egyptologists, and anthropologists. Although Tuthmosis theoretically ruled
co-regently with Queen Hatshepsut, most documentation lists his dates of reign from the time he ascended
the throne as
a child in 1504 B.C. until his death in 1450 B.C.
Tuthmosis III was one of the kings of the New Kingdom Period and a member
of the Eighteenth Dynasty, the last period of Egyptian greatness, in which the ancient empire
reached its zenith. This
period was marked by the establishment of a legal code, the building of magnificent temples, and the great military conquests
of Tuthmosis III. The Eighteenth Dynasty is the greatest of all Egyptian dynasties and Tuthmosis III is considered by many
as its greatest pharaoh.
Although Tuthmosis' mummy proves him to have been a small man in stature (he was less than five
feet tall), he was one of the greatest conquerors in history. Napoleon of France has been aptly compared to the Egyptian ruler.
As soon as Tuthmosis III assumed sole power, he set off immediately on the first of many military campaigns. Tuthmosis III
personally
conducted eighteen military campaigns in twenty years, and he was best known for his conquest of southwestern Asia.
During
Tuthmosis III's first military encounter, he defeated the Assyrian rulers at Megiddo and successfully besieged that city.
The Battle of Megiddo was the first war in history to be recorded in detail. The spoils from this victory included approximately
2,000 Assyrian horses, 900 war chariots, 2,000 Asiatic bulls, 2,000 cattle, and 20,000 other animals.
Approximately 2,000
prisoners-of-war were taken, including Assyrian princes and princesses.
The climax of Tuthmosis III's career came when
he crossed the Euphrates River and defeated the Mitannians, his principal adversaries, on their own soil. Tuthmosis III then
re-crossed the Euphrates and erected a stele (monument) beside that of his grandfather (Tuthmosis I), which marked the eastern
point of his empire. He erected other such
Monuments throughout his empire. One of the granite structures, from Heliopolis,
is now located in Central Park in New York and its twin rests on the bank of the Thames River in England. Tuthmosis III also
fought in Libya and Ethiopia. His campaigns to the South brought Nubia (an ancient region of northeastern Africa) under his
control. His conquests brought Egypt an abundance of riches and hordes of captives, which were used as slaves.
Tuthmosis'
later victories were little more than military parades.
1b ensure his son's succession to the throne, near the end of his
reign; Tuthmosis III made his twenty-year-old son his co-ruler. A year later, the warrior-king was dead. "Lo, the King completed
his lifetime of many years, splendid in might, in valor and triumph," said one of
his grieving generals. Tuthmosis III,
the world's first great military figure, left his legacy to ancient Egypt by leaving her all that he surveyed. He joined his
forebears in the Valley of the Kings.
Over three thousand years later, in 1831, the Pharaoh's tomb was discovered by grave
robbers, along with thirty-six of Egypt's most famous kings and queens. King Tuthmosis III's mummy was taken to the Cairo
Museum.
