Thutmose III: The Pharaoh Who Built Egypt's Empire

Thutmose III was a king of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty who reigned for about 54 years, from around 1479 to 1425 BC. For his first two decades he shared the throne with his stepmother Hatshepsut; after her death he led a series of campaigns that turned Egypt into the leading power of the Near East. He is remembered as the greatest warrior king of the New Kingdom and as a prolific builder of temples and obelisks.

Early life and co-reign

Thutmose III was the son of Thutmose II and a minor wife named Iset. When his father died around 1479 BC he was still a child. His father’s principal wife, Hatshepsut, governed for him as regent and within a few years had herself crowned king. For about 20 years the two were co-rulers, with Hatshepsut in the senior role.

Thutmose was not hidden away. He appears in temple reliefs as king, often behind Hatshepsut, and seems to have received military training. Some scholars think he led a campaign in Nubia or the Levant during the co-reign. Hatshepsut’s last attested date is in year 22, about 1458 BC, after which Thutmose III ruled alone.

The road to empire

Egypt’s position in the Levant had weakened. A coalition of Canaanite and Syrian city-states, led by the king of Kadesh on the Orontes River and backed by the powerful kingdom of Mitanni in northern Syria, gathered at Megiddo. In his first campaign, probably within months of becoming sole ruler, Thutmose marched north and won the Battle of Megiddo. After a siege of about seven months the city surrendered.

The victory gave Egypt control of Canaan. Thutmose followed it up with almost yearly campaigns, often in the summer season. His annals, carved on the walls around the sanctuary of Amun at Karnak and based on daybooks kept by the army scribe Tjaneni, list 17 campaigns over about 20 years, ending in his 42nd regnal year.

Many of the expeditions were shows of strength and tribute-collection tours rather than great battles. Others captured coastal ports so that troops and supplies could move by sea, an important innovation that let the army reach Syria quickly.

Crossing the Euphrates

The high point came with his eighth campaign in year 33. Thutmose had boats built near Byblos on the Lebanese coast and carried overland on ox carts so his army could cross the Euphrates. On the far bank he defeated Mitannian forces and set up a victory stela beside one left decades earlier by his grandfather Thutmose I.

On the return march he hunted elephants near Niy in Syria. The officer Amenemhab, in his tomb at Thebes, recorded that he saved the king’s life when an elephant attacked him during the hunt. After this campaign Assyria, Babylon and the Hittites sent gifts, which the Egyptians recorded as tribute.

The army and its commanders

The army that Thutmose led was a professional force developed since the wars against the Hyksos. Its striking arm was the chariotry: light, two-wheeled chariots pulled by two horses and carrying a driver and an archer armed with the powerful composite bow. Infantry with spears, shields, axes and the curved sword called the khopesh followed, along with Nubian archers and other auxiliary troops.

Logistics were as important as fighting. The annals mention harvests seized in enemy territory, supply depots in captured harbours and ships that carried men and grain along the coast. Scribes kept daily records of the march, which is why the campaigns can be followed in such detail.

Several of the king’s officers are known by name. Amenemhab described his exploits in battle and the hunt in his tomb at Thebes. The general Djehuty was credited in a later Egyptian story with taking the port of Joppa (Jaffa) by smuggling soldiers into the city hidden in baskets. The tale is a work of literature rather than a reliable record, but Djehuty himself was a real official, and a gold bowl given to him by the king survives in the Louvre.

Ruling the conquered lands

Thutmose did not annex the Levant as a province. Local kings kept their thrones but swore loyalty, paid tribute and hosted small Egyptian garrisons. To secure their obedience their sons were taken to Egypt, educated at the court and later sent home as rulers loyal to the pharaoh. This system lasted for more than a century and is visible in the Amarna Letters of a later generation.

In the south Thutmose consolidated Egyptian rule over Nubia, the source of much of Egypt’s gold. A stela set up at Gebel Barkal near Napata in his 47th year marked the southern limit of his empire near the Fourth Cataract. His vizier Rekhmire, whose richly painted tomb shows foreign envoys bringing goods, managed the vast flow of wealth at home.

A great builder

The wealth of empire paid for building on a grand scale. At Karnak Thutmose built the Akh-menu, a festival hall for his jubilees, where a chamber known as the “Botanical Garden” is carved with plants and animals said to have been seen in Syria. He added a pylon, rebuilt shrines and set up obelisks. At Deir el-Bahari he built a temple, Djeser-Akhet, between the temples of Mentuhotep II and Hatshepsut.

His obelisks later travelled far. The Lateran obelisk, the tallest standing ancient obelisk, was quarried under Thutmose III but only erected by his grandson Thutmose IV; it was moved from Karnak to Rome in the 4th century AD. The Obelisk of Theodosius in Istanbul is the top part of another of his monuments. The two Cleopatra’s Needles, now in London and New York, were first erected by Thutmose III at Heliopolis.

The erasure of Hatshepsut

Late in Thutmose’s reign, about 20 years after Hatshepsut’s death, her statues were smashed and her name and figure removed from many monuments. Earlier historians saw this as the revenge of a resentful stepson. Because it came so late, most scholars now think it was meant to secure the succession for his son, Amenhotep II, by presenting a royal line of male kings without her.

Thutmose made Amenhotep II co-regent for about two years before his own death around 1425 BC. He was buried in tomb KV34 in the Valley of the Kings, whose burial chamber is painted with the complete Amduat in a sketch-like style. His mummy, moved in antiquity, was found in 1881 in the royal cache at Deir el-Bahari.

Timeline

• c. 1479 BC: Thutmose III becomes king as a child; Hatshepsut acts as regent.
• c. 1477–1473 BC: Hatshepsut is crowned king and becomes senior co-ruler.
• c. 1458 BC: Hatshepsut’s last attested year; Thutmose rules alone.
• c. 1457 BC: First campaign and victory at Megiddo.
• c. 1446 BC: Eighth campaign; he crosses the Euphrates against Mitanni.
• c. 1437 BC: His 17th and last recorded Asian campaign, in year 42.
• c. 1432 BC: Gebel Barkal stela set up in Nubia in year 47.
• c. 1425 BC: Thutmose III dies after about 54 years on the throne.
• 1898: Victor Loret finds his tomb, KV34.

Why it matters

Thutmose III created the Egyptian empire that dominated the eastern Mediterranean for much of the Late Bronze Age. His campaigns, recorded in unusual detail, give historians the earliest well-documented military operations in history. The riches they brought home helped pay for the great temples of Thebes, and his monuments still stand in Egypt, Europe and North America today.