New Kingdom of Egypt: A Visual History

The New Kingdom (c. 1550-1069 BC) began when Ahmose I expelled the Hyksos and reunified Egypt. The 18th Dynasty pharaohs, Thutmose I and III especially, built an empire reaching the Euphrates and deep into Nubia, and Amenhotep III presided over unmatched wealth. Akhenaten's religious revolution and new capital at Amarna failed and was reversed under Tutankhamun. The 19th Dynasty's Ramesses II fought the Hittites at Kadesh (c. 1274) and signed the first known peace treaty. Sea Peoples, Libyan wars, economic decline and priestly power ended the period around 1069 BC.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is New Kingdom of Egypt. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Egyptian territory

Includes Nubia to the Fourth Cataract and the Levantine sphere.

Timeline of the New Kingdom of Egypt

1. 1,550 BC
   Ahmose expels the Hyksos
2. 1,479 BC
   Hatshepsut and Thutmose IIIMegiddo c. 1457.
3. 1,390 BC
   Amenhotep III
4. 1,353 BC
   AkhenatenThe Amarna period.
5. 1,332 BC
   Tutankhamun
6. 1,274 BC
   Kadesh
7. 1,259 BC
   Egyptian-Hittite treaty
8. 1,177 BC
   Ramesses III defeats the Sea Peoples
9. 1,069 BC
   End of the New Kingdom

The 18th Dynasty

Ahmose I drove the Hyksos from Avaris around 1550 and pursued them into Canaan; his successors made war a permanent institution. Hatshepsut ruled as pharaoh for two decades and sent a trading expedition to Punt; her stepson Thutmose III fought 17 campaigns, winning at Megiddo and reaching the Euphrates. Amenhotep III's reign was Egypt's most opulent, and the Amarna letters preserve his diplomatic correspondence with Babylon, Mitanni and the Hittites.

Amarna and Ramesses

Akhenaten abandoned the traditional gods for the sun-disc Aten, moved the capital to Amarna and revolutionised art. His successors, including the boy Tutankhamun, restored the old religion and erased his memory. The 19th Dynasty's Seti I and Ramesses II fought to hold Syria against the Hittites; the Battle of Kadesh ended in stalemate and a treaty around 1259. Ramesses reigned 66 years, built Abu Simbel and the Ramesseum, and fathered around 100 children.

Decline

Merneptah and Ramesses III fought off Libyans and the Sea Peoples, whose defeat is shown at Medinet Habu around 1177 BC. The remaining Ramessides faced strikes by unpaid tomb workers, tomb robbery, grain shortages and the growing power of the Amun priesthood at Thebes. Around 1069 the high priests effectively ruled the south while a new dynasty ruled from Tanis, ending the New Kingdom.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Hyksos (1,650 BC to 1,550 BC)
• Middle Kingdom of Egypt (2,055 BC to 1,650 BC)
• Mitanni (1,500 BC to 1,300 BC)
• New Hittite Kingdom (Hittite Empire) (1,400 BC to 1,180 BC)
• Middle Assyrian Empire (1,365 BC to 1,050 BC)
• Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt (Kushite) (744 BC to 656 BC)
• Old Kingdom of Egypt (2,686 BC to 2,181 BC)
• First Babylonian Empire (1,894 BC to 1,595 BC)

8 surprising things about the New Kingdom of Egypt

1. Tutankhamun's tomb, found by Howard Carter in 1922, is the only near-intact royal burial of the New Kingdom; he was a minor king.
2. The Egyptian-Hittite treaty of c. 1259 BC is the oldest surviving peace treaty; a copy hangs at the United Nations.
3. Ramesses II's mummy was issued a passport in 1976 to travel to Paris for conservation, listing his occupation as 'King (deceased)'.
4. The first recorded labour strike in history was by the tomb workers of Deir el-Medina in 1157 BC over late rations.
5. Hatshepsut had herself depicted with a false beard and male body; her successor later chiselled her images away.
6. The Amarna letters, on clay tablets in Akkadian, include pleas from Canaanite vassals begging for Egyptian archers.
7. Abu Simbel was cut into 1,000 blocks and moved uphill in the 1960s to escape the Aswan dam's lake.
8. The Sea Peoples' identity is still debated; some may have been Philistines, Sardinians or Sicilians.

Sources

• Ancient Egypt: The New Kingdom Encyclopaedia Britannica
• New Kingdom of Egypt Wikipedia
• New Kingdom of Egypt World History Encyclopedia
• Toby Wilkinson, The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt (2010) Bloomsbury

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