18th Dynasty of Egypt

Rise after the Hyksos

For roughly a century before the dynasty began, Egypt was divided. A line of Western Asiatic kings, the Hyksos of the 15th Dynasty, ruled the north from Avaris, while Theban kings held the south and Nubia was under Kushite control. The Theban 17th Dynasty led the resistance: Seqenenre Taa died violently in the conflict and his successor Kamose pushed north to the walls of Avaris.

Ahmose I, Kamose's brother, captured Avaris, drove the Hyksos out of Egypt and followed them into southern Canaan. He then reasserted control over Nubia and reorganised the administration. Historians treat his reign as the start of the 18th Dynasty and of the New Kingdom.

New Kingdom expansion

Under Ahmose I's successors Egypt turned military success into an empire. Thutmose I campaigned as far as the Euphrates and deep into Nubia. Thutmose III, after the years of Hatshepsut's co-rule, led a series of campaigns in the Levant, beginning with the battle of Megiddo, and made Syria-Palestine a tributary region under Egyptian garrisons and local vassal rulers.

Amenhotep II and Thutmose IV maintained this position, increasingly through diplomacy and marriage alliances, most notably with Mitanni. The wealth of tribute, gold from Nubia and trade paid for a building programme centred on Karnak and Thebes.

Hatshepsut and Thutmose III

Hatshepsut began as regent for the young Thutmose III and by about her seventh year took the full titles of king. Her reign is remembered for the terraced temple at Deir el-Bahari, the expedition to Punt and the obelisks at Karnak. Thutmose III ruled alone after her death, and some of her monuments were later defaced, a step usually explained as an attempt to secure the male succession rather than as personal revenge.

Amenhotep III and the height of the dynasty

Amenhotep III ruled for almost four decades in a period of peace, diplomacy and wealth. His reign produced Luxor Temple, the palace city at Malkata and hundreds of statues, and the Amarna letters show him corresponding with the great rulers of the Near East as equals.

The Amarna period

His son Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten and promoted the worship of the sun-disk Aten, eventually building a new capital at Akhetaten (modern Amarna). Art, temple practice and royal ideology changed sharply in his reign. The end of the Amarna period is obscure, with the rulers Neferneferuaten and Smenkhkare disputed and possibly overlapping with Akhenaten.

Tutankhamun came to the throne as a child, restored the traditional gods and moved the court back toward Memphis and Thebes. His intact tomb in the Valley of the Kings, found in 1922, is known worldwide, though his own reign was short and politically limited. Ay, and then the general Horemheb, ruled next.

Dynastic succession

The succession runs from father to son through most of the dynasty, with several exceptions. Thutmose I came to the throne without being the previous king's son and legitimised his line through his daughter Hatshepsut's marriage to Thutmose II. Hatshepsut and Thutmose III shared the throne, Tutankhamun's parentage is debated, and Ay and Horemheb were officials who became kings.

Horemheb had no surviving heir and named his vizier Paramessu, who became Ramesses I and founded the 19th Dynasty. Details of co-regencies, especially between Amenhotep III and Akhenaten, are still discussed by Egyptologists.

Rulers of the 18th Dynasty

Every ruler profile in the archive for this dynasty, in the order used by the chronology. Each name links to a full profile with dates, background, sources and illustrations.

Sources: UCL Digital Egypt; Metropolitan Museum; Shaw (2000). See the full bibliography.