New Kingdom of Egypt: The Last of Three Golden Ages and the Most Glorious of Them All

Scholars mark the start of ancient Egyptian civilisation in 3150 BC when Pharaoh Narmer unified Egypt’s Lower and Upper Kingdoms under one crown. This was precisely when the country started acting like one, with a king, cabinet, priests, people, and plans. This was also when Egypt began witnessing obvious development in many aspects, most notably architecture.

The native rule of Egypt continued until 343 BC, excluding a period of 121 years from 525 to 404 BC, during which Egypt was under Persian invasion. Throughout these nearly three millennia, Egyptian civilisation was pretty much like a transverse wave of three peaks, each followed by a deep valley.

The valleys were periods of conflicts, instability, and little progress or growth. On the other hand, the peaks were the golden ages of ancient Egypt, known as the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. During these times, Egypt witnessed tremendous prosperity, development, and expansion beyond its definitive borders and made outstanding achievements that still live to this day.

Previously, we explored the Old and Middle Kingdoms. Today, we will look into the New Kingdom of Egypt, the last golden age and the most glorious of them all. So please grab a cup of coffee and travel back in time.

The New Kingdom of Egypt

Stretching for almost half a century from 1550 to 1069 BC, the New Kingdom of Egypt comprised three dynasties.

It started with the 18th Dynasty, which continued for over 258 years, from 1550 to 1292 BC. The first Pharaoh was Ahmose, and the last was Horemheb. Between them, 11 other kings and one queen ruled. Some of those Pharaohs were among the most significant and influential in ancient Egypt’s history.

The 19th Dynasty was established by Pharaoh Ramesses I in 1292 BC and lasted 103 years, ending in 1189 BC. The third Pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty was whom many scholars consider the most powerful of all time. That is Ramesses II.

In total, the 19th Dynasty comprised seven Pharaohs. Some had short reigns, such as Pharaoh Ramesses I, who ruled for only two years. Others ruled for so long, with Ramesses II’s reign becoming the longest with 66 years. He was the second longest-ruling Pharaoh, only out-reigned by King Pepi II from the sixth Dynasty, who is said to have ruled for 90 years!

The 20th Dynasty started in 1189 BC, continued for another 112 years, and ended in 1077 BC. We like to call it the Dynasty of the Ramesseses, as nine out of the 10 Pharaohs who ruled during it were named Ramesses. With the end of the 20th Dynasty, the Sunset over the New Kingdom and the last golden age of ancient Egypt began.

To understand how significant this long period of the New Kingdom was, we must step back a few decades and explore how Egypt was before it.

The Rise

The period that preceded the New Kingdom of Egypt was the Second Intermediate Period, which followed the Middle Kingdom, the second golden age.

Although the Middle Kingdom was a long period of prosperity and development, it ended with ultimate chaos. The 13th Dynasty was the last to rule, and it was a time of complete disorder in the country. There were many conflicts over succession, and power became the only thing thought about. Over 30 Pharaohs came to power; however, each’s reign was too short to allow them to make any proper development.

Gradually, the Pharaohs lost their grip over the entire country. This tempted the local rulers of many areas to seize power, leading to internal fragmentation. Around this time, Egypt was also hit by severe drought and famine, which badly affected crop production and worsened the economy.

Along with other factors, Egypt became prone to foreign invasions, the most known of which was made by Hyksos. Those foreign invaders from the Levant in western Asia conquered and took control of Lower Egypt in 1638 BC and established their own capital, Avaris, in the Nile Delta. As they ruled Lower Egypt, they formed the 15th Dynasty, which lasted nearly a century.

Despite that, Upper Egypt was still under the control of the Pharaohs, and the next-in-line Dynasties, the 16th and 17th, continued to rule.

Then, it was time for a new rise to the Egyptian state.

During the reign of the last Pharaoh of the 17th Dynasty, Kamose, Upper Egypt started rebelling against Hyksos. When Kamose died, his brother Ahmose succeeded him, who took it upon himself to expel Hyksos and reunite Lower and Upper Egypt into one kingdom again.

As a firm, fearless military leader, Ahmose led a vast military campaign up north, faced Hyksos, defeated them on the battlefield and expelled them from the country. He even marched to the Levant to stop them from ever coming back and reclaimed power over both Canaan and Nubia, both of which were former Egyptian territories.

Now that he had united the country retrieved his native reign, established the 18th Dynasty, and centralised his administration in Thebes, Ahmose rolled up his sleeves, rubbed his hands, and decided to make Egypt great again. 

For the next 25 years, Ahmose would become highly concerned with strengthening and expanding the military, building new forts to protect the country’s borders, and re-establishing the economy by reopening mines and stretching trade routes with other countries. Ahmose’s efforts would then pay off to develop Egypt and take it to a peak it had never witnessed before.

The Peak

The uplift Ahmose caused in Egypt kind of paved the way for and encouraged the following kings and queens to follow suit and make even more remarkable achievements, and that is what happened. The New Kingdom of Egypt featured some of the most powerful and highly accomplished Pharaohs.

While the development in Egypt during that time would take volumes to cover, we can just boil them down to three different areas: military campaigns, architectural development and religious reforms.

So, let’s go over some highlights of these areas.

Military Campaigns

For the most part, Egypt had already considered Nubia part of it, and most pharaohs campaigned there to use its resources and secure trade routes with other countries by keeping it under Egyptian control. So Amenhotep I, Ahmose’s son and successor, reclaimed Egyptian dominance over Nubia and secured Egypt’s southern borders.

Thutmose I, Amenhotep I’s successor, continued campaigning in Nubia but also went northeast toward the Levant and even further away than Ahmose when he crossed the Euphrates River that runs through Iraq, pushing the Egyptian Empire’s border even further.

When Thutmose I died, and during the transition of power to his son, Thutmose II, Nubians revolted to break free from Egyptian dominance. However, with the help of his father’s powerful army generals, the new Pharaoh sent a military to Nubia that suppressed the uprising and kept the country under Egyptian control.

The most magnificent military achievements were made by Pharaoh Thutmose III, the sixth to rule in the 18th Dynasty. Later, scholars named him Thutmose the Great and Napoleon of Egypt, as he led at least 17 campaigns.

Thutmose III also focused on the Levant, conquering all of Syria and defeating the Mitanni Kingdom in the Battle of Megiddo. He then imposed Egyptian dominance over the area stretching from Southern Anatolia in modern-day Turkey to the north of Syria and the trade routes that ran through it.

Seti I was the second king to rule during the 19th Dynasty and another great military leader. By the time he came to power, the Hittite Empire, which preceded the Mitanni Kingdom and was also based in Anatolia, had already invaded Syria, seized power over many Egyptian territories in the region, and threatened Egypt’s stability.

So, Seti I led an army and confronted the Hittites. He succeeded in defeating them, reclaiming Kadesh, a Syrian town that was under Egyptian control before the Hittites dominated it. Seti I could successfully loosen the grip of the Hittites until his son, Pharaoh Ramesses II, could ultimately destroy it.

Ramesses II was also a powerful military leader and is considered by many scholars to be the greatest Pharaoh of all time. He reinforced the army, used new strategies, and led a campaign toward Syria. He fought the Hittites in a severe battle in Kadesh, defeated them once and for all, and signed a peace treaty with them, the first of its kind in history.

Pharaoh Ramesses III defeating the Sea People was another military highlight of the New Kingdom. Though their identity has never been confirmed, many scholars believe the Sea People were violent groups of seafarers who may have come from the Aegean Sea and Anatolia. Yes, Anatolia, again!

The Sea People attacked many Mediterranean nations, including Cyprus, Egypt, and Syria, and brought an end to the Hittite Empire. Rameses III defeated them in several battles and built forts along the Egyptian north coast to deflect any future attacks from their side.

Architectural Development

The New Kingdom of Egypt also witnessed a substantial development in architecture. As many Pharaohs vowed to immortalise themselves, they built mortuary temples, obelisks, walls, shrines, and chapels, decorating them with scenes from their lives and documenting their outstanding achievements so that future generations could know about and remember them.

For instance, one of the most remarkable monuments was the Great Hypostyle Hall, which King Seti I built inside the Karnak Temple Complex, whose construction had already started half a millennium earlier. The columns that made up the hall depicted scenes from the king’s wars with the Hittites and his other military campaigns.

Ramesses II built the colossal Temple of Abu Simbel in Aswan and the Ramesseum, his own mortuary temple, which are terrific architectural masterpieces. The mighty Queen Hatshepsut, who served as the fifth Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty, built the magnificent Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut in Deir el-Bahari and the Red Chapel at Karnak Temple. He also built two super giant obelisks carved from pink granite, one of which is still standing to this day at Karnak.

During the New Kingdom, the Pharaohs also decided to transform their burial traditions. Instead of building pyramids, they dug tombs deep in the mountains and finely concealed their entrances so they could not be reached. The new royal cemetery was allocated two different sites on the west bank of the Nile, which were later called the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens.

The brilliance and cleverness of ancient Egyptians could be seen in the structure and design of these royal tombs. It was not only their size that made them spectacular, but also how long and deep in the mountain they were built and how beautifully they were decorated.

Some of the most impressive tombs in these two Valleys include King Seti I’s, that of Queen Nefertari, the royal and beloved wife of King Ramesses II, and, without doubt, the 1922-discovered tomb of King Tutankhamun before which the world has still been standing awe.

Religious Revolt

Another of the most interesting characteristics of the New Kingdom of Egypt is the religious revolt led by Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, the 10th Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty. Later, he called himself Akhenaten and has been known by this name ever since. Thanks to the shifts in Egyptian religious beliefs he made during his reign, you may think of Akhenaten as a religious reformer or a preacher.

In essence, the ancient Egyptian religion was built upon polytheism. Ancient Egyptians believed in many deities, each with different traits, who took charge of a different aspect of life and were represented by other animals.

Some of the most famous deities were Isis, the goddess of healing and magic, her husband, Osiris, the god of fertility, the afterlife and the dead and their son, Horus, the god of the sky and war. Seth was the god of violence and disorder, Anubis was the god of funerals and the guide to the underworld, and Ma’at was the goddess of mortality, balance and justice.

Ra was the Sun god and the one thought to be the creator of the world. While Amun used to be the god of air, his role evolved throughout history until he was widely worshipped as the king of all deities. During the New Kingdom, both the Sun and the air combined and became Amun-Ra, the chief god of all deities there were.

This continued until Amenhotep IV became king. He did not accept polytheism and instead believed only one god created the Universe. So he ditched the ancient Egyptian religion, symbolised the one and only god by the Sun disc and named him Aten, changed his name to Akhenaten, started preaching the new religion, Atenism, and closed all the Amun-Ra temples.

Unfortunately, Akhenaten’s new religion was met with pushback from the priests. It posed a huge threat to their power and authority as intermediaries between the gods and the people and to their administration of the temples, and that, let me tell you, was a pretty big deal.

Temples were religious institutions managed by priests, who controlled the income they received, best represented by donations from people seeking to appease and please the gods, large amounts of money given to them by the government for maintenance, renovation, and expansion, and rents from the temples’ lands. Rejecting Amun-Ra and closing the temples meant the priests became unemployed overnight and were denied both fortune and status.

Akhenaton was able to tighten his grip and impose the new religion. However, after his death and the transition of power to his then-nine-year-old son, Tutankhamun, the priests were freed from their former king’s obligations. So they quickly wiped away Akhenaten’s religion like it never existed and brought back the cult of Amun-Ra and their authority.

The Downfall

Kingdoms are more like diabetes than heart attacks. They do not collapse suddenly but rather over a prolonged period of time.

The end of the New Kingdom started early in the 20th Dynasty, almost a century before the kingdom was scheduled to fall, as conflicts between the Pharaohs and the priests began to emerge.

The priests grew powerful, and their authority increased over time. They controlled more land and eventually took over the entire country’s finances. On the other hand, power transitions often result in political instability. Each of the many Pharaohs who ruled stayed in power for just a few years, which did not give them much of a chance to make any considerable achievements. 

These conflicts minimised military activities, which certainly needed funds. Egypt lost most of its foreign territories in Asia and, along with them, the resources they provided and the trade routes they secured. As a result, the financial situation worsened, and the army weakened, making Egypt prone to foreign threats.

The last Pharaoh of the 20th Dynasty was Ramesses XI, whose power was limited to Lower Egypt by the priests of Amun-Ra after they took control of Upper Egypt. Once again, the country was fragmented, and the New Kingdom, the last golden age, ended.