New Kingdom of Egypt

This article is about a period in ancient Egyptian history. For the alternative-"rap" group, see New Kingdom (group)

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 26th

First Persian Period

Late Period

28th 29th 30th

Second Persian Period

Macedonian-Roman Period

Alexander the Great

Ptolemaic Dynasty

Roman Egypt

Arab Conquest

The New Kingdom is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the 16th century B.C.E. and the 11th century B.C.E., covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of Egypt. The New Kingdom (1570–1070 B.C.E.) followed the Second Intermediate Period, and was succeeded by the Third Intermediate Period.

Background

Possibly as a result of the foreign rule of the Hyksos during the Second Intermediate Period, the New Kingdom saw Egypt attempt to create a buffer between the Levant and Egypt, and attain its greatest territorial extent. It expanded far south into Nubia and held wide territories in the Near East. Egyptian armies fought Hittite armies for control of modern-day Syria.

The Eighteenth Dynasty contained some of Egypt's most famous Pharaohs including Ahmose I, Hapshepsut, Thutmose III, Amenhotep III, Akhenaten and Tutankhamun. Queen Hatshepsut concentrated on expanding Egypt's external trade, sending a commercial expedition to the land of Punt. Thutmose III ("the Napoleon of Egypt") expanded Egypt's army and wielded it with great success.

One of the best-known 18th Dynasty pharaohs is Amenhotep IV, who changed his name to Akhenaten in honor of the Aten and whose exclusive worship of the Aten is often interpreted as history's first instance of monotheism (and was argued in Sigmund Freud's Moses and Monotheism to have been the ultimate origin of Jewish monotheism). Akhenaten's religious fervor is cited as the reason why he was subsequently written out of Egyptian history. Under his reign, in the 14th century B.C.E., Egyptian art flourished and attained an unprecedented level of realism.

Another celebrated pharaoh is Ramesses II ("the Great") of the 19th Dynasty, who sought to recover territories in the Levant that had been held by 18th Dynasty Egypt. His campaigns of reconquest culminated in the Battle of Kadesh, where he led Egyptian armies against those of the Hittite king Muwatalli II and was caught in history's first recorded military ambush. Ramesses II was famed for the huge number of children he sired by his various wives and concubines; the tomb he built for his sons, many of whom he outlived, in the Valley of the Kings has proven to be the largest funerary complex in Egypt. Still greater military ability, if less self-promotion, was shown by Ramesses III.

Timeline

See also

• History of Ancient Egypt
• Pharaoh (historical novel by Bolesław Prus, relating to the fall of Egypt's Twentieth Dynasty and New Kingdom)
• Amon-Mut-Khonsu

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• New Kingdom Egypt By Mark Healy

External links

• Middle East on the Matrix: Egypt, The New Kingdom — Photographs of many of the historic sites dating from the New Kingdom

de:Neues Reich (Ägypten) es:Imperio Nuevo de Egipto fr:Nouvel Empire égyptien it:Nuovo Regno dell'Egitto ja:エジプト新王国 nl:Nieuwe Rijk no:Det nye rike i Egypt pl:Nowe Państwo - linie czasu pt:Império Novo ru:Новое царство (Древний Египет) sr:Ново царство fi:Uusi valtakunta sv:Nya riket zh:新王國時期

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