And the Hyksos were expelled.
Around fifteen-fifty BCE, Ahmose I, the Theban pharaoh of the
Eighteenth Dynasty, completed the campaign his elder brother
Kamose had begun. The Hyksos capital at Avaris was captured.
The Hyksos rulers and a portion of their population were expelled
Back into the Levant. Their fortress-city of Sharuhen in southern
Canaan was besieged for three years and finally taken. Egypt was
Reunified under native Egyptian rule. The New Kingdom had begun.
But the Egypt that emerged from the Hyksos expulsion was
Transformed. It had learned, during the century and a half of
Hyksos rule, the chariot, the composite bow, bronze-age military
Technology that the native Egyptian dynasties had not previously
Possessed. The humiliation of foreign rule had bred a determination
Never to let such a thing happen again. The New Kingdom Egypt
Was militarized, outward-looking, imperial. For the first time in
Its history, Egypt projected power far beyond its traditional
Nile Valley borders. Egyptian armies campaigned in Canaan, in
Syria, as far north as the Euphrates under Thutmose I. They
Campaigned south into Nubia, where they established direct
Egyptian administration over what had previously been nominally
Tributary regions. The Egyptian Empire—the first real Egyptian
Empire in the full imperial sense—was born.
The Eighteenth Dynasty was the great age of this expansion.
Ahmose I, Amenhotep I, Thutmose I, Thutmose II—then
Hatshepsut. One of the most remarkable figures in Egyptian
History. Daughter of Thutmose I, wife and half-sister of
Thutmose II, stepmother of the young Thutmose III. When
Thutmose II died, Hatshepsut initially served as regent for her
Young stepson. But within a few years, she took the title of
Pharaoh herself—a female pharaoh, ruling in her own right, in a
Culture that had almost no precedent for female kingship. She
Reigned for approximately twenty-two years. She was astonishingly
Successful. She prioritized trade over warfare—the famous expedition
To Punt (on the Red Sea coast), which brought back myrrh-trees,
Incense, exotic animals, and African wealth, was Hatshepsut's
Crowning diplomatic achievement. She built one of the most beautiful
Mortuary temples in Egypt—Deir el-Bahari, on the western bank
Of the Nile opposite Thebes, a terraced colonnaded structure
Cut into the cliff-face. Her sculptures often depicted her with a
Ceremonial false beard (the standard iconography of pharaonic
Kingship), but her feminine features were also retained. She
Navigated the gender-contradictions of her role with a sophisticated
Adaptive strategy. And when she died, Thutmose III—now an adult—
Took the throne. Years later, Thutmose III or his successors
Attempted to erase Hatshepsut's memory: her images were chiseled
Off public monuments, her cartouches defaced. This was not entirely
Successful. She was rediscovered by modern Egyptologists, and her
Full stature as one of the greatest pharaohs of the New Kingdom
Has been restored.
Thutmose III himself was the military
Genius of the dynasty. He conducted seventeen campaigns into the
Levant and Syria, consolidating Egyptian control over the entire
Region. His greatest victory, at Megiddo (the site whose name
Would become, in Greek, "Armageddon" in the Book of Revelation),
Defeated a coalition of Canaanite kings and established Egyptian
Supremacy over the Levant for the next century. Thutmose III is
Sometimes called "The Napoleon of Egypt" by modern historians—a
Tactically brilliant field commander who consolidated an empire.
But the New Kingdom's expansion and militarization created a
Problem at home. The Amun priesthood—centered at Thebes, the
Dynastic capital—grew enormously wealthy on the spoils of empire.
Tribute from conquered territories poured into the temple of
Amun-Ra at Karnak. The Amun priesthood's power approached
Rivalry with the royal court. And it is in this context—the tension
Between the royal authority and the entrenched Amun priesthood—
That Akhenaten rose to the throne.
Akhenaten, born
Amenhotep IV, was the son of Amenhotep III and grandson of
Thutmose IV. He reigned from approximately thirteen-fifty-three
To thirteen-thirty-six BCE. And he attempted something that no
Previous pharaoh had attempted: to abolish the traditional Egyptian
Pantheon and replace it with the worship of a single god—the sun-
Disk, Aten—with himself as the sole intermediary between the
Divine and humanity. This is the famous "Aten heresy" or
"Amarna revolution"—sometimes celebrated in popular history as the
First monotheism. The Gaiad's reading is more skeptical. Akhenaten's
Religious innovation was not quite monotheism in the Abrahamic
Sense. It retained cosmic elements of the traditional Egyptian
Religion. It was, primarily, a political move—an attempt to break
The Amun priesthood's power by redirecting religious authority
To a sun-disk that only the pharaoh had privileged access to.
Akhenaten built a new capital, Akhetaten (modern Amarna),
In middle Egypt. He moved the royal court there. He closed temples
Of Amun and other traditional gods. He persecuted priests of the
Old religion. And he composed, in his own hand, hymns to the
Aten—the Great Hymn to the Aten—that celebrate the sun as
Creator of all life. (Interestingly, the Great Hymn to the Aten
Shares striking similarities with Psalm 104 of the Hebrew
Bible—a parallel that has led some scholars to argue that Hebrew
Monotheism was influenced by or descended from Akhenaten's
Earlier experiment. The Gaiad takes a careful position on this:
The parallel is real, but the historical transmission is murky,
And the Hebrew tradition had its own independent development.)
And here the Gaiad makes a specific and possibly provocative claim.
Akhenaten, despite his reputation in modern pop-religion as a
"Proto-monotheist hero," was—in the Gaiad's reading—the pharaoh
Who persecuted the Israelites. The "new king who knew not
Joseph" of the Exodus narrative may be, in the Gaiad's reading,
Akhenaten himself. Why? Because Akhenaten's religious revolution
Was anti-foreign-cult. In closing down the temples of the traditional
Egyptian gods, he also closed down the temples of the Semitic
Gods who had been worshipped in Egypt by the remaining Canaanite
Population. The Israelites in Goshen—descendants of Jacob's
Family, still preserving their own Semitic religious identity—
Found themselves religiously suppressed under Akhenaten's regime.
The irony is striking: Akhenaten, celebrated by modern writers
As the first monotheist, was in the Gaiad's reading the active
Persecutor of the Israelites, whose descendants would develop
The most important monotheism in subsequent world history. The
Timing also roughly works: Akhenaten's reign (thirteen-fifty-three
To thirteen-thirty-six BCE) is approximately the right period for
The biblical Exodus tradition to have its historical kernel,
Though the biblical narrative compresses and distorts the timeline.
After Akhenaten's death, the Amarna revolution collapsed quickly.
His son-in-law (or possibly son) Tutankhamun (originally
Tutankhaten) changed his name to honor Amun, moved the court
Back to Thebes, and restored the traditional cults. Tutankhamun
Is famous in modern times almost exclusively because of the
Discovery of his intact tomb by Howard Carter in nineteen
Twenty-two—the unparalleled treasure-hoard that survived because
The tomb had been lost under the debris of later construction.
In his own time, Tutankhamun was a minor pharaoh who reigned
Briefly and died young (probably from a combination of genetic
Disorders resulting from the royal family's extreme inbreeding,
Plus an accidental injury). The fame is modern. The reign was
Not particularly consequential. After Tutankhamun, the Eighteenth
Dynasty ended in administrative confusion and was succeeded by
The Nineteenth Dynasty, founded by the general Ramesses I and
Including the great Seti I and the even greater Ramesses II.
Ramesses II—"Ramesses the Great"—reigned for sixty-six years
(twelve-seventy-nine to twelve-thirteen BCE), fought the Battle
Of Kadesh against the Hittites (the largest chariot battle in
Human history up to that point, with about five thousand chariots
Engaged), and eventually signed the first known international
Peace treaty in human history with the Hittite king Hattusili III.
The Egyptian-Hittite Peace Treaty (c. 1259 BCE) was so important
That copies were kept in both capitals, and a version engraved in
Hittite on silver tablets was carried to Thebes and deposited
In the temple of Amun. A copy is now in the United Nations
Building in New York—the world's first peace treaty, held up as
The precedent for the modern international order.
Ramesses II built on a scale that rivaled Khufu of the Old
Kingdom: the great temples at Abu Simbel, carved into a sandstone
Cliff in Nubia, with four massive seated statues of the pharaoh
Sixty-five feet high guarding the entrance. The Ramesseum—his
Mortuary temple on the west bank at Thebes. The additions to
Karnak and Luxor. Ramesses II was the last great builder-pharaoh
Of the pre-Bronze Age Collapse era. And then, toward the end of
His long reign, things began to destabilize. Sea peoples appeared
On the horizon. Mediterranean maritime raiders began harassing
The Egyptian coast. The climate was shifting again. And after
Ramesses II's death, Egypt would face, during the reign of his
Son Merneptah and grandsons, the first major waves of the Sea
Peoples—the great migrations that would contribute to the
Bronze Age Collapse of around twelve-hundred BCE. The New
Kingdom's long expansion was ending. The system that had made
Ramesses's grandeur possible was straining toward its final
Failure. And the Exodus narrative—which the Gaiad reads as
The Israelite departure from Egypt in the late Nineteenth
Dynasty or early Twentieth Dynasty—fits into this period of
Growing instability.
But that is the next chapter. This chapter
Is the New Kingdom in its full expansionary glory: Hatshepsut's
Diplomatic triumphs, Thutmose III's military conquests, Akhenaten's
Religious revolution and persecution of the Israelites, Ramesses II's
Sixty-six-year reign and his peace treaty with the Hittites. The
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties. The Egyptian Empire at
Its peak. The monumental architecture, the international diplomacy,
The religious upheaval, and the slowly tightening pressures that
Would eventually bring the Bronze Age itself crashing down.
New Kingdom. Hatshepsut. Thutmose III. Akhenaten. Ramesses II.
The Egyptian Empire. The Kadesh Peace Treaty. The persecution of
The Israelites. The glories before the collapse. Stand.