New Kingdom
Thutmose II (Aakheperenre)
18th Dynasty · 1550-1295 BCE
Open full-size illustration →Source: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Background
Thutmose II, throne name Aakheperenre, had a comparatively short reign sandwiched between his more famous father Thutmose I and the joint rule of his sister-wife Hatshepsut and son Thutmose III. For decades his actual tomb was unknown, making him the last Eighteenth Dynasty king whose burial place remained unidentified, until a joint Egyptian-British team announced its discovery in February 2025. Research: UCL Digital Egypt; Metropolitan Museum.
Dating: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
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A brief reign
Thutmose II ruled for a relatively short period, overshadowed by his father's massive conquests and his primary wife's future legacy. He successfully suppressed a rebellion in Nubia and dispatched a minor military expedition to the Levant. Upon his premature death, he left behind a young heir born to a minor wife, setting the stage for an intense royal power struggle.
The 2025 discovery of his tomb
In February 2025, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the New Kingdom Research Foundation at the University of Cambridge announced that a tomb first entered in 2022 in the Western Wadis, about 2.4 kilometers from the Valley of the Kings, belonged to Thutmose II — the first pharaonic tomb discovery in that area since Howard Carter found Tutankhamun's in 1922. The tomb had been catastrophically flooded not long after the king's burial, and its contents were removed in antiquity and reburied elsewhere, so excavators found it largely empty of grave goods, its corridors filled with debris hardened almost to concrete by repeated flooding. The discovery nonetheless finally closed a long-standing gap in the map of Eighteenth Dynasty royal burials.
Sources for this profile
- Baker, D. D. (2008). The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume 1. Stacey International.
- Shaw, I. (Ed.). (2000). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press.
- University College London. Kings of the New Kingdom.
- Reeves, N., & Wilkinson, R. H. (1996). The Complete Valley of the Kings. Thames & Hudson.
- Dodson, A., & Hilton, D. (2004). The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson.
The complete, APA-formatted reference list is on the Academic Sources & Bibliography page.