Late Period
Necho II (Wehemibre)
26th Dynasty (Saite) · 664-525 BCE
Reign begins610 BCE
Reign ends595 BCE
Dynasty span664-525 BCE
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Ambition in the Levant
Necho II succeeded his father and aggressively pushed Egyptian influence into the Near East. He led a military campaign into the Levant to assist the remnants of the Assyrian Empire against the rising power of Babylon, clashing with Babylonian forces at Carchemish. Beyond military maneuvers, he was an ambitious builder and organizer, reportedly initiating a canal connecting the Nile to the Red Sea and commissioning a three-year circumnavigation of Africa by Phoenician sailors.