Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt

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Dynasties of Pharaohs in ancient Egypt
Predynastic Egypt
Protodynastic Period
Early Dynastic Period
1st 2nd
Old Kingdom
3rd 4th 5th 6th
First Intermediate Period
7th 8th 9th 10th
11th (Thebes only)
Middle Kingdom
11th (All Egypt)
12th 13th 14th
Second Intermediate Period
15th 16th 17th
New Kingdom
18th 19th 20th
Third Intermediate Period
21st 22nd 23rd 24th 25th
Late Period
26th 27th 28th
29th 30th 31st
Graeco-Roman Period
Alexander the Great
Ptolemaic dynasty
Roman

The Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt - often combined with the nineteenth and twentieth dynasties under the group title, New Kingdom - is perhaps the most famous of all the dynasties of ancient Egypt. As well as a number of Egypt's most powerful pharaohs, it included Tutankhamun, whose tomb, uncovered by Howard Carter in 1922, was one of the greatest of all archaeological discoveries, being relatively undisturbed by tomb robbers. It is rarely known as the Thutmoid Dynasty.

1 Foundation
- 1.1 Thutmosids
2 Eighteenth Dynasty timeline
3 End of dynasty
4 See also

[edit] Foundation

The dynasty was founded by Ahmose, the brother of Kamose, the last ruler of the Seventeenth Dynasty. Ahmose finished the campaign to expel the hated Hyksos rulers. With this dynasty, the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt ended, and the New Kingdom of Egypt or the Egyptian Empire began.

[edit] Thutmosids

Thutmose I seems to have not been directly related to the existing royal line, and married into royalty. The later part of the dynasty included Hatshepsut, who effectively ruled during the minority of her stepson, but was later considered a usurper; the first formal relations with foreign countries under Amenhotep III, of which some records were included in the el Amarna letters; and Akhenaten, who instigated the earliest verified expression of monotheism, (although the actual origins of monotheism are the subject of continuing research and debate). Scholars believe that Akhenaten's devotion to his God Aten offended many in power, which contributed to the end of this dynasty; he later suffered damnatio memoriae. Although modern students of Egyptology consider the monotheism of Akhenaten the most important event of this period, the Egyptians themselves considered the so-called Amarna period an unfortunate aberration.

[edit] Eighteenth Dynasty timeline

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DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:-1560 till:-1290 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:100 start:-1560 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:25 start:-1560

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 from: -1550 till: -1525 color:PA text:"Ahmose I"
 from: -1525 till: -1504 color:PA text:"Amenhotep I"
 from: -1504 till: -1492 color:PA text:"Thutmose I"
 from: -1492 till: -1479 color:PA text:"Thutmose II"
 from: -1479 till: -1425 color:PA text:"Thutmose III"
 from: -1472 till: -1457 color:PA text:"Hatshepsut"
 from: -1425 till: -1399 color:PA text:"Amenhotep II"
 from: -1399 till: -1389 color:PA text:"Thutmose IV"
 from: -1389 till: -1351 color:PA text:"Amenhotep III"
 from: -1351 till: -1337 color:PA text:"Akhenaten"
 from: -1336 till: -1334 color:PA text:"Smenkhkare"
 from: -1334 till: -1325 color:PA text:"Tutankhamun1334-1325BC"
 from: -1325 till: -1321 color:PA text:"Kheperkheprure Ay"
 from: -1321 till: -1292 color:PA text:"Horemheb"

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[edit] End of dynasty

The dynasty's final years were clearly shaky: the unidentified widow of King Nibhururiya (identified with either Akhenaten or Tutankhamun) wrote to Suppiluliumas I, king of the Hittites, asking him to send one of his sons to be her husband and rule Egypt. Suppiluliumas sent an ambassador to investigate, who reported that the situation was accurately described; however the destined Hittite prince Zannanza was murdered en route on the borders between the Hittite and Egyptian Empires, and the last two members of this dynasty – Ay and Horemheb – came from officials of the royal court. Suppiluliumas I reacted with rage at the news of his son's death by going to war against Egypt's vassal states in Syria and Northern Canaan and captured the city of Amki. Unfortunately, Egyptian prisoners of war from Amki carried a plague which would eventually ravage the Hittite Empire and kill both Suppiluliumas I and his direct successor.

The Nineteenth dynasty of Ramesses I succeeded it in 1292 BC.