Ahmose I

Ahmose I expelled the Hyksos from Egypt and founded the Eighteenth Dynasty and the New Kingdom. He came to the throne around 1550 BC as a child, the second son of the Theban king Seqenenre Tao, who had been killed in battle — his mummy shows axe and dagger wounds to the head — and the brother of Kamose, who died after a short reign. Their mother Ahhotep governed as regent and appears to have led troops herself. The Hyksos were a Levantine dynasty who had ruled the Nile delta from Avaris for about a century, using the composite bow, bronze weapons and the horse-drawn chariot, which Egypt had not previously had. Ahmose campaigned north over several years, taking Memphis and Heliopolis and cutting the route between Avaris and Canaan before besieging the capital itself. Avaris fell after repeated assaults, and he pursued the survivors into southern Palestine, besieging Sharuhen for three years. The account survives in the tomb autobiography of a soldier, also called Ahmose son of Ibana, who recorded the campaigns and the hands and captives he was awarded for them. He then campaigned south into Nubia, restoring Egyptian control to the second cataract and beyond, and put down revolts by former Hyksos collaborators. The reunification began five centuries of Egyptian imperial expansion. He reorganised the administration, reopened the turquoise mines at Sinai and the quarries at Tura, and resumed large-scale building at Karnak and Abydos. He adopted the chariot and the weapons of the enemy he expelled. He reigned about twenty-five years.

• Lived: 1570 BCE – 1525 BCE
• Nationality: Egyptian
• Roles: ruler