King Thutmose III

Thutmose III (sometimes read as Thutmosis or Tuthmosis III and meaning Son of Thoth) was the sixth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. During the first twenty-two years of Thutmose’s reign he was co-regent with his aunt, Hatshepsut, who was named the pharaoh. While she is shown first on surviving monuments, both were assigned the usual royal names and insignia and neither is given any obvious seniority over the other.He served as the head of her armies.
After her death and his later rise to being the pharaoh of the kingdom, he created the largest empire Egypt had ever seen; no fewer than seventeen campaigns were conducted, and he conquered from Niy in north Syria to the fourth waterfall of the Nile in Nubia. After his years of campaigning were over, he established himself as a great builder pharaoh as well. Thutmose III was responsible for building over fifty temples in Egypt and building massive additions to Egypt’s chief temple at Karnak. New levels of artistic skills were reached during his reign, as well as unique architectural developments never seen before and never again after his reign.
Officially, Thutmose III ruled Egypt for almost fifty-four years, and his reign is usually dated from April 24, 1479 to March 11, 1425 BCE; however, the first twenty-two years of his reign was as the co-regent to Hatshepsut–his stepmother and aunt–who was named as the pharaoh. During the last two years of his reign he became a coregent again, with his son, Amenhotep II, who would succeed him. When he died he was buried in the Valley of the Kings as were the rest of the kings from this period in Egypt.
Thutmosis III was the son of Pharaoh the second Thutmose II and Iset (sometimes transliterated Isis), a secondary wife of Thutmosis II. Because he was the pharaoh’s only son, he would have become the first in line for the throne when Thutmosis II died; however, because he was not the son of his father’s royal queen, his “degree” of royalty was less than ideal. To bolster his qualifications, he may have married a daughter of Thutmose II and Hatshepsut. It has been suggested that the daughter in question may have been Merytre-Hatshepsut, however, she is now proven not to have been a daughter of Hatshepsut’s.
Regardless of this, when Thutmosis II died Thutmosis III was too young to rule, so Hatshepsut became his regent, soon his coregent, and shortly thereafter, she was declared to be the pharaoh. Thutmosis III had little power over the empire while Hatshepsut exercised the formal titulary of kingship, complete with a royal prenomen—Maatkare. Her rule was quite prosperous and marked by great advancements. When he reached a suitable age and demonstrated the capability, she appointed him to head her armies. After the death of Hatshepsut, Thutmosis III ruled Egypt on his own for thirty years, until the last two years of his reign, when his son became a coregent for two years. He died in his fifty-fourth regnal year.
Thutmosis III had two known wives: Satiah and Merytre-Hatshepsut. Satiah bore him his firstborn son, Amenemhat, but the child predeceased his father. His successor, the crown prince and future king Amenhotep II, was born to Merytre-Hatshepsut.
Thutmose III reigned from 1479 BCE to 1425 BCE according to the Low Chronology of Ancient Egypt. This has been the conventional Egyptian chronology in academic circles since the 1960s,though in some circles the older dates 1504 BC to 1450 BC is preferred from the High Chronology.These dates, just as all the dates of the eighteenth Dynasty, are open to dispute because of uncertainty about the circumstances surrounding the recording of a Heliacal Rise of Sothis in the reign of Amenhotep I. A papyrus from Amenhotep I’s reign records this astronomical observation which, theoretically, could be used to perfectly correlate the Egyptian chronology with the modern calendar, however, to do this the latitude where the observation was taken must also be known. This document has no note of the place of observation, but it can safely be assumed that it was taken in either a delta city such as Memphis or Heliopolis, or in Thebes. These two latitudes give dates twenty years apart, the High and Low chronologies, respectively.
The length of Thutmose III’s reign is known to the day thanks to information found in the tomb of the court official Amenemheb.Amenemheb records Thutmose III’s death to his master’s fifty-fourth regnal year,on the thirtieth day of the third month of Peret.[10] The day of Thutmose III’s accession is known to be I Shemu day 4, and astronomical observations can be used to establish the exact dates of the beginning and end of the king’s reign (assuming the low chronology) from April 24 1479 BC to March 11 1425 BC respectively.