Early Dynasty XVIII was the queen consort and great royal wife of Pharaoh
Akhenaten and increasingly identified with the female pharaoh
Neferneferuaten was the sixth pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty. Under his reign, Egypt's Kingdom reached its greatest expansion, from Kush in the south to the Hittite Empire in the north. Dynasty XVIII was founded by
Ahmose I, the brother or son of
Kamose, the last ruler of the
17th Dynasty. Ahmose finished the campaign to expel the
Hyksos rulers. His reign is seen as the end of the
Second Intermediate Period and the start of the New Kingdom. Ahmose's consort, Queen
Ahmose-Nefertari was "arguably the most venerated woman in Egyptian history, and the grandmother of the 18th Dynasty." She was deified after she died. Ahmose was succeeded by his son,
Amenhotep I, whose reign was relatively uneventful. Amenhotep I probably left no male heir and the next pharaoh,
Thutmose I, seems to have been related to the royal family through marriage. During his reign, the borders of Egypt's empire reached their greatest expanse, extending in the north to
Carchemish on the
Euphrates and in the south up to
Kanisah Kurgus beyond the fourth
cataract of the Nile. Thutmose I was succeeded by
Thutmose II and his queen,
Hatshepsut, who was the daughter of Thutmose I. After her husband's death and a period of regency for her minor stepson (who would later become pharaoh as Thutmose III) Hatshepsut became pharaoh in her own right and ruled for over twenty years.
Thutmose III, who became known as the greatest military pharaoh ever, also had a lengthy reign after becoming pharaoh. He had a second co-regency in his old age with his son
Amenhotep II. Amenhotep II was succeeded by
Thutmose IV, who in his turn was followed by his son
Amenhotep III, whose reign is seen as a high point in this dynasty. Amenhotep III's reign was a period of unprecedented prosperity, artistic splendor, and international power, as attested by over 250 statues (more than any other pharaoh) and 200 large stone scarabs discovered from Syria to Nubia. Amenhotep III undertook large scale building programmes, the extent of which can only be compared with those of the much longer reign of
Ramesses II during Dynasty XIX. Amenhotep III's consort was the Great Royal Wife
Tiye, for whom he built an artificial lake, as described on eleven scarabs.
Akhenaten, the Amarna Period, and Tutankhamun and his family adoring the
Aten. Second from the left is
Meritaten, daughter of Akhenaten. Amenhotep III may have shared the throne for up to twelve years with his son Amenhotep IV. There is much debate about this proposed co-regency, with different experts considering that there was a lengthy co-regency, a short one, or none at all. In the fifth year of his reign, Amenhotep IV changed his name to
Akhenaten (, "Effective for the
Aten") and moved his capital to
Amarna, which he named Akhetaten. During the reign of Akhenaten, the
Aten (
jtn, the sun disk) became, first, the most prominent deity, and eventually came to be considered the only god. Whether this amounted to true monotheism continues to be the subject of debate within the academic community. Some state that Akhenaten created a monotheism, while others point out that he merely suppressed a dominant solar cult by the assertion of another, while he never completely abandoned several other traditional deities. Later Egyptians considered this "
Amarna Period" an unfortunate aberration. After his death, Akhenaten was succeeded by two short-lived pharaohs,
Smenkhkare and
Neferneferuaten, of which little is known. In 1334 BC, Akhenaten's probable son, Tutankhaten, ascended to the throne: shortly after, he restored Egyptian polytheist cult and subsequently changed his name to
Tutankhamun, in honor to the Egyptian god
Amun.
His infant daughters represent the final genetically related generation of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
Ay and Horemheb Ay, c. 1336–1327 BC, 66.174.1,
Brooklyn Museum The last two members of the Eighteenth Dynasty—
Ay and
Horemheb—became rulers from the ranks of officials in the royal court, although Ay might also have been the maternal uncle of Akhenaten as a fellow descendant of
Yuya and
Tjuyu. Ay may have married the widowed Great Royal Wife and presumed half-sister of Tutankhamun,
Ankhesenamun, in order to obtain power; she did not live long afterward, with Ay instead ascending to the throne with his long-time wife
Tey, who was originally Nefertiti's wet-nurse. Ay's reign was short. His successor was Horemheb, a general who appeared to have been Tutankhamun's
heir presumptive, and whose wife
Mutnedjmet might have been sister of the former queen
Nefertiti. It is possible that Horemheb took throne away from Ay in a
coup d'état. Although Ay's son or stepson
Nakhtmin was named as his father/stepfather's Crown Prince, Nakhtmin seems to have died during the reign of Ay, leaving the opportunity for Horemheb to claim the throne next. Horemheb also died without surviving children, having appointed his vizier, Pa-ra-mes-su, as his heir. This vizier ascended the throne in 1292 BC as
Ramesses I, and was the first pharaoh of the
Nineteenth Dynasty. This example to the right depicts a man named Ay who achieved the exalted religious positions of
Second Prophet of Amun and High Priest of
Mut at
Thebes. His career flourished during the reign of Tutankhamun, when the statue was made. The cartouches of King Ay, Tutankhamun's successor appearing on the statue, were an attempt by an artisan to "update" the sculpture.
Relations with Nubia The Eighteenth Dynasty empire conquered all of Lower
Nubia under
Thutmose I. By the reign of
Thutmose III, the Egyptians directly controlled Nubia to the Nile river, 4th cataract, with Egyptian influence / tributaries extending beyond this point. The Egyptians referred to the area as
Kush and it was administered by the
Viceroy of Kush. The 18th dynasty obtained Nubian gold, animal skins, ivory, ebony, cattle, and horses, which were of exceptional quality. File:Block from a Relief Depicting a Battle MET 213 S3BR2 01GG.jpg|Egyptian relief depicting a battle against West Asiatics. Reign of
Amenhotep II, Eighteenth Dynasty, c. 1427–1400 BC File:West Asiatic tribute bearers tomb of Sobekhotep 18th Dynasty Thebes.jpg|West Asiatic tribute bearers in the tomb of
Sobekhotep, c. 1400 BC, Thebes.
British Museum ==Dating==