Thutmose III was an Egyptian ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty (1500 BCE to 1426 BCE), frequently viewed as the best pharaoh of ancient Egypt. He climbed the honored position around the age of 10, but his step mother (aunt), Hatshepsut, ruled first as his official and later as an Egyptian pharaoh for the next 20 years. On her death he started military campaigns to restore Egyptian dominance in Syria and Palestine. Later he assaulted and vanquished the kingdom of Mitanni, an incredible Mesopotamian opponent of Egypt. He quelled the Nubian clans toward the south and utilized them in the gold mines that turned into the premise of Egypt’s riches. He combined his triumphs with more battles and built up a framework whereby local rulers would pay yearly tribute to Egypt and send their beneficiaries as prisoners to Egypt, where instructors teach them in court. At home he expanded the sanctuary of Amon at Karnak. His mummy was found in 1889 and his funeral home sanctuary in 1962. His major campaigns began in 1470 BCE before ending in 1450 BCE.
ORIGINS OF WARFARE
Because Thutmose III became pharaoh when he was a small child, his aunt Hatshepsut ruled Egypt for many years. During the time of her rule, Hatshepsut pursued a pacific international strategy of non-violence, which caused Egypt’s control of the Levant and Nubia lands to weaken. Following the passing of Hatshepsut and with Egyptian power in decrease, the ruler of Kadesh drove a rebel against Egyptian standard of nearly 300 urban areas of Palestine and Syria.
Thutmose III was eager to affirm his power and reestablish Egyptian control in the Levant. Subsequent to requesting the expulsion of Hatshepsut’s name and image from all public structures, Thutmose revamped the Egyptian Army, which had been largely ineffective for many years. Historians know much about Thutmose III’s military campaigns because of his royal scribe and military commander, Thanuny, who documented the pharaoh’s army movements. For many military historians, Thutmose III’s Battle of Megiddo was among the first in history where researchers have their records.
ROGRESSION TO WARFARE
In his second year as ruler, Thutmose III walked the military into Palestine. Analytical assessments of the size of his army run from 15,000 to 30,000 men. Egyptologists believe Thutmose III’s army was comprised largely of infantry and chariots. The infantrymen were equipped with sickle-shaped-swords, battle-axes, and ox-hide shields. The nobility battled from their chariots, and many of them were bowmen. Thutmose’s enemies were similarly equipped.
The ruler of Kadesh had amassed a huge army at the fortified city of Megiddo (Also known as Armageddon in Hebrew), north of Mount Carmel. Dismissing the counseling of his commanders, who dreaded a trap, Thutmose picked the immediate course north to Megiddo, through a narrow pass. Clearly, the king of Kadesh accepted that the Egyptians would consider this course unreasonably dangerous, for he had conveyed the majority of his army along another street toward the east. Driving face to face in a chariot, Thutmose pushed through Megiddo Pass, dispersing its few courageous defenders before combining his army, while the king of Kadesh withdrew his troops back to Megiddo.
While he was getting ready for what might most likely be the biggest clash of his numerous campaigns, Thutmose drew up his military in a concave formation of three principle groups southwest of Megiddo and athwart the little Kina River. The two flanks were on high ground, with the left flank stretching out toward the northwest of Megiddo to remove any foe escape along a street from the city. The renegade force was located on high ground close to Megiddo.
While the southern wing of his military held his foe in place, Thutmose III drove the northern wing away when he assaulted the enemy and cut between the dissident left flank and Megiddo itself, surrounding the adversary and winning the fight. The remaining aggressors fled. The Egyptian army spared many enemy combatants because they began plundering the adversary camp, which significantly disappointed Thutmose III.
Thutmose then laid siege to Megiddo for eight months. When the adversary surrendered, Thutmose took a large portion of the enemy leadership, despite the fact that the king of Kadesh escaped. Thutmose captured the ruler’s child and returned him to Egypt as a prisoner, alongside the children of other caught rulers. Among the crown jewels of war were in excess of 900 war chariots, 2,200 warhorses, and 200 suits of shield. Apparently, in the battle Thutmose gained 426 pounds of gold and silver. The Assyrian, Babylonian, and Hittite rulers all sent him endowments, which the Egyptians viewed as tribute.
During the following two decades, Thutmose mounted upwards of 16 extra campaigns. His second and third campaigns seem to have been minimal more like voyages through Canaan and Syria to collect tribute. There is no record of his fourth campaign. The fifth, sixth, and seventh campaigns were all against Phoenician urban communities in Syria and Kadesh on the Orontes River. The eighth battle was against the province of Mitanni on the opposite side of the Euphrates, which Thutmose and his men crossed in pontoons, shocking the Mitannians. His ninth crusade was another attack of Syria, most likely more of a strike rather a campaign.
The tenth campaign, against the ruler of Mitanni, included significantly extra conflicts. The different sides met up close to Aleppo, with Thutmose again successful. Insights about Thutmose’s eleventh and twelfth campaigns are obscure yet presumably included Qatna and Nukhashshe. He came back to the last for his thirteenth battle, while his fourteenth was against the Shasu, conceivably in present-day Lebanon or over the Jordan River. His fifteenth campaign remains unclear, but his sixteenth began with a Mitanni revolt, which included significant urban regions of Syria where there was heavy fighting. Despite the fact that Thutmose crushed his opposition forces, he failed to take Kadesh. His last crusade happened late in his life during his 50th year where his army fought up the Nile southward into Nubia; however, the conflict was just to the extent the Fourth Cataract.
Thutmose completely comprehended the significance of ocean power, and one of his achievements was the making of a fleet that controlled the eastern Mediterranean. Thutmose III was never defeated in battle; he set up an Empire, which included the Euphrates River, and he incorporated the subjugation of Palestine and Syria just as a component of the Hittite Empire in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). Thutmose guaranteed the tranquility of his domain by taking to Egypt the offspring of the vanquished rulers as prisoners. The Egyptians taught these foreign children to respect the pharaoh before they became governors in their father’s cities. Thutmose demonstrated to be a fit and viable manager. He utilized the tribute and prisoners of his wars to remake the urban communities and sanctuaries of Egypt. As indicated by the copyists, his rule kept going many years. He most likely died close to Thebes.
THUTMOSE III LEGACY
Military historians view Thutmose III as the greatest of all Egyptian warrior pharaohs. His military campaigns significantly enlarged the boundaries of the Egyptian Empire into present-day southern Turkey, focal Syria, and up the Nile into Nubia. He created and shaped the vision for Egyptians in relation to their place and responsibility on the planet, and the magnificent framework he made endured well into the Twentieth Dynasty (1189 to 1077 BCE). A few biblical scholars believe that Thutmose III was the Pharaoh of the Israelite exodus from Egypt. After 17 yearly battles, the eighteent
PRIMARY SOURCES
Benson, Douglas. Ancient Egypt’s Warfare. Ashland, OH: Book Masters, 1995. Cline, Eric H., and David O’Connor, eds. Thutmose III: A New Biography. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006. Cline, Eric H., and Jill Rubalcaba. The Ancient Egyptian World. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Collins, Paul. From Egypt to Babylon: The International Age, 1550–500 BC. Boston: Harvard University Press, 2008. Darnell, John Coleman, and Colleen Ma- nassa. Tutankhamun’s Armies: Battle and Conquest during Ancient Egypt’s Late Eighteenth Dynasty. New York: Wiley, 2007. Gabriel, Richard, and Donald Boose. The Great Battles of Antiquity. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1994. Gardiner, Alan. Egypt of the Pharaohs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964. Montet, Pierre. Lives of the Pharaohs. Cleveland, OH: World Publishing, 1968. Nelson, Harold Hayden. The Battle of Megiddo. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1913. Redford, Donald B. The Wars in Syria and Lebanon of Thutmose III. Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers, 2003. Spalinger, A. J. War in Ancient Egypt: The New Kingdom. New York: Wiley, 2005. Steindorff, George, and Keith C. Seele. When Egypt Ruled the East. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963. New King James Version (NKJV). The Septuagint (LXX). The Dead Sea Scrolls in English. Thutmoses III was pharaoh of Egypt in 1446 BC (http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-exodus-date-1440bc.htm)