Thutmose III
Thutmose III conducted seventeen campaigns in twenty years and made Egypt an imperial power. Born around 1481 BC, he was the son of Thutmose II by a secondary wife, and acceded as an infant around 1479 BC with his stepmother Hatshepsut as regent — who then became pharaoh in her own right and ruled for about two decades while he grew up commanding the army. He took sole power around 1458 BC and campaigned almost immediately. His first and most celebrated action was at Megiddo. A coalition of Canaanite and Syrian states under the king of Kadesh had gathered there, and the Egyptian army faced three possible approaches — two safe and wide, one a narrow defile through the Aruna pass where the column would be strung out and vulnerable. His officers urged the safe routes; he took the defile, on the reasoning that the enemy would not expect it, and emerged onto the plain unopposed. The battle was won and then thrown away when his troops stopped to plunder the camp, and the city had to be besieged for seven months. His scribe Tjaneni recorded the campaigns on the walls at Karnak in the earliest detailed military annals to survive, including the order of march and the inventory of spoil. He reached the Euphrates and defeated Mitanni, and secured the empire by taking the sons of local rulers to Egypt to be educated as loyal successors rather than destroying the dynasties. He built extensively, erected obelisks now standing in Rome, London and New York, and died around 1425 BC.
- Lived: 1481 BCE – 1425 BCE
- Nationality: Egyptian
- Roles: pharaoh, military_leader, builder
