Ahmose I and the Expulsion of the Hyksos (c. 1550 BC)

Ahmose I was the king of Thebes who, around 1550 BC, captured Avaris, the capital of the Hyksos rulers of northern Egypt, and drove them out of the country. His victory reunited Egypt after a century of division. Later Egyptians regarded him as the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty, the first dynasty of the New Kingdom, Egypt’s age of empire.

Background: a divided Egypt

From about 1650 BC northern Egypt was ruled by the Hyksos, kings of West Asian origin based at Avaris in the eastern Nile Delta. A rival line of Egyptian kings ruled Upper Egypt from Thebes, while in the far south the Kerma kingdom of Nubia had taken over the old Egyptian fortresses.

For a time the three powers seem to have coexisted and traded. By the mid-16th century BC the Theban Seventeenth Dynasty turned to war. Seqenenre Tao, Ahmose’s father, died violently; his mummy shows several head wounds, some made by axes of a type used in the Levant, and he is generally thought to have fallen in battle against the Hyksos.

Kamose’s campaign

Seqenenre’s successor Kamose, probably Ahmose’s elder brother, launched a major campaign north. Two stelae he set up at Karnak, partly preserved, describe how he sailed down the Nile, attacked towns loyal to the Hyksos and reached the area of Avaris.

Kamose also claims to have captured a messenger carrying a letter from the Hyksos king Apepi to the ruler of Kush. In it Apepi urged the Nubian king to attack Thebes from the south while Kamose was away. Kamose did not take Avaris, and he died after a short reign of about three years.

Ahmose’s early reign and Queen Ahhotep

Ahmose came to the throne young, around 1550 BC in the commonly used chronology. His mother, Queen Ahhotep, appears to have played a leading role in the early years. A stela at Karnak praises her for caring for Egypt’s soldiers, gathering its fugitives and pacifying Upper Egypt, words that suggest she held authority at a time of crisis.

A burial of a queen named Ahhotep, found at Dra Abu el-Naga in Thebes in 1859, contained weapons and jewellery bearing Ahmose’s name. They include a ceremonial axe showing the king striking an enemy, a dagger, and three large golden flies, an award for bravery. Whether this tomb belonged to Ahmose’s mother or to another queen of the same name is debated.

The fall of Avaris

The main narrative source for the war is the tomb of Ahmose son of Ebana, a soldier from El-Kab in southern Egypt who served in the royal fleet. In his autobiography he describes repeated fighting at Avaris, including battles on the water at a canal of the city, and the capture of prisoners for which the king rewarded him with gold. He then states simply that Avaris was plundered.

A brief note written on the back of the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus records that in a regnal year 11, an unnamed “southern prince” entered Heliopolis and then took the border fortress of Tjaru (Sile) in the north-eastern Delta. Many historians link it to Ahmose’s advance, cutting Avaris off from Canaan before its fall. Other scholars read it differently, so the date of the capture of Avaris remains uncertain, with estimates between Ahmose’s 11th and 19th years.

The sources say little about the fate of Khamudi, the last Hyksos king, or about how many people left with the defeated rulers. Egyptian texts focus on royal victory and on the rewards given to soldiers, so the war is seen almost entirely from the Theban side.

Archaeology at Tell el-Dab’a, the site of Avaris, shows that the Hyksos city was largely abandoned at the end of the period and later rebuilt with Egyptian buildings, including a large palace of the early Eighteenth Dynasty.

Sharuhen and Nubia

After the fall of Avaris, Ahmose pursued his enemies into southern Canaan. According to Ahmose son of Ebana, the king besieged Sharuhen, probably a site in the Gaza region such as Tell el-Ajjul or Tell el-Far’ah (South), for three years before taking it.

Ahmose then turned south. He campaigned in Lower Nubia and re-established Egyptian control over the region of the old fortresses, including Buhen. He also put down at least two uprisings inside Egypt, led by men named Aata and Tetian.

Rebuilding Egypt

With Egypt reunited, Ahmose reorganised its government and restored temples. He reopened quarries and mines, resumed trade with the Levant and the Aegean, and built at Karnak and elsewhere.

The so-called Tempest Stela from Karnak describes a violent storm with darkness and flooding and Ahmose’s work to repair the damage. Some scholars have linked it to the Minoan eruption of Thera, but this connection is not accepted by all, and the text may describe a local event or use symbolic language.

At Abydos, Ahmose built the last royal pyramid in Egypt, together with a temple and a shrine to his grandmother Tetisheri. Fragments of relief from the site show horses and chariots and are among the earliest depictions of them in Egyptian art.

His principal wife, Ahmose-Nefertari, became one of the most honoured queens in Egyptian history and was later worshipped at Thebes. Ahmose reigned for about 25 years and was succeeded by their son, Amenhotep I.

Key people

• Ahmose I: king of Thebes who completed the war and reunited Egypt.
• Ahhotep: his mother, praised for her role in a time of war.
• Seqenenre Tao and Kamose: his father and predecessor, who began the struggle against the Hyksos.
• Apepi and Khamudi: the last major Hyksos kings; Khamudi is generally thought to have ruled when Avaris fell.
• Ahmose son of Ebana: naval soldier whose tomb inscription is the main eyewitness account.

Myths and facts

The expulsion of the Hyksos is often imagined as a single decisive battle. In reality it was a war fought over a generation by at least three Theban kings, with sieges, river battles and long pauses. Nor were all foreigners driven out: people of Levantine origin continued to live and work in Egypt in the New Kingdom, and the area around Avaris remained important, later becoming the site of the Ramesside capital Piramesse.

The ancient writer Josephus, quoting Manetho, connected the departure of the Hyksos with the biblical Exodus. This idea is still repeated, but there is no direct archaeological or textual evidence linking the two, and most historians treat them separately.

Timeline

• c. 1560 BC: Seqenenre Tao dies, probably in battle with the Hyksos.
• c. 1555 BC: Kamose campaigns north toward Avaris.
• c. 1550 BC: Ahmose I becomes king of Thebes.
• Year 11 (king unnamed, possibly Ahmose): A note on the Rhind Papyrus records the taking of Heliopolis and Tjaru.
• c. 1540–1530 BC: Avaris falls (exact year uncertain); siege of Sharuhen follows.
• c. 1530 BC: Campaigns in Nubia and suppression of revolts in Egypt.
• c. 1525 BC: Death of Ahmose I; Amenhotep I succeeds.

Why it matters

The expulsion of the Hyksos ended the Second Intermediate Period and launched the New Kingdom, when Egypt built an empire stretching from Nubia to Syria. It also gave Egyptian kings a new ideal of the pharaoh as a warrior leading chariot armies, an image that would define rulers such as Thutmose III and Ramesses II.