Famous Pharaohs

The Nineteenth Dynasty

After the death of Horemheb, the vizier of the former king, took the throne and adopt new name to himself "Rameses I", his old name is "Pramesse". The historians called his age with the nineteenth dynasty. The new pharaoh Rameses I was an old man, so his reign was very short and uncompleted. Although his short reign, Ramses I has the honor of establishment the nineteenth dynasty. Seti I reign after the death of his father Rameses I, his age was building age beacause he reign for along time. Seti I was devoted to the God Osiris and he built especial temple to Osiris in Abydos. In that temple the scholars found complete list of all the pharaohs from the age of Narmer to the nineteenth dynasty, but the pharaohs of the period of Amarna city was not recorded in that list. The tomb of Seti I in the valley of the kings, It is one of the most beautiful tombs in ancient Egypt. His mummy is still one of the wonderful mummies found in Egypt. Rameses II was succeeded by Seti I, his reign was very long, about 75 years.

Ramses II or Ramses the great, was the most famous king in the world. He had wide spread famous in the past and nowadays because he was built more buildings like temples and tombs, also he reached with the borders of the Egyptian empire to Asia minor. He was a great warrior and he put the first treaty in the world between Egypt and the Hittite Empire. More about Ramses II. After the death of Ramses I, his son Merneptah reign for short time, about 10 years only. Seti II (1199–1193 BC) succeed his father Merneptah, in his short age another king Amenmesse appears and asked the throne, perhaps Amenmesse reign in the same time with Seti II. Some historians suggested that Amenmesse divided Egypt with Seti II. In any way Siptah came to the throne after Amenmesse and Seti II, he maybe the son of Seti II, other scholars said that Siptah was the son of Amenmesse. Siptah had a bad deformity in his legs and he died resulted that. After the death of Siptah, the queen Tawosret, maybe the wife of Seti II, came to the throne. The end of nineteenth dynasty was unknown for the scholars, maybe Tawosret was the last pharaoh of that dynasty, but the fact was lost from the history court. After the nineteenth dynasty, the throne turned to Setnakht, the first king in the dynasty 20, but the relations between Setnakht and the end of the nineteenth dynasty was unknown.

Horemhab 1321–1293

Akhenaten, Who moved the political capital of the country from Akhetaten to Memphis (Why Akhenaten Moved The Capital?), had 6 daughters from his wife Nefertiti. Horemhab followed King Ay (1325-1321) to the throne. Some historians suggest that Horemhab himself order with kill the Hittite prince, and other believed that he also kill king Tut himself. Horemhab was a military general and from the first men of king Ay. He may be still beside the old man (Ay) to die and then he claim to the throne.

Horemhab with Amun

He comes the obliteration of the remained of the Amarna. With that uncivil work, some believed that the mummy of Akhenaten and the mummies of his family also, were destroyed. King Horemheb usurped the majority of the monuments of Tutankhamen. Horemhab also insult the pharaohs of Amarna, and by lie Horemhab dated his own rule to the beginning of Akhenaten reign, Tutankhamen. He perhaps want to effacement Ay, Tut and Akhenaten ages from the page of the history. He married from a certain woman called Mutnodjmet, some believed to be the younger sister of Nefertiti. Rameses I follow Horemhab after his death. Rameses I was the vizier of Horemhab. He was an old commander in army. Rameses I begin a new dynasty in the Egyptian history, that is the nineteenth dynasty (1293-1185BC).

Cartouche of Horemhab

Horemhab 1321–1293 want to confirm his rule to the throne, so he constructed two tombs for himself, one when he was a small nobleman which founded at Saqqara, and the other tomb founded in the Valley of the Kings in Thebes which have number KV57, as the pharaoh. His Wife was Queen Mutnedjmet, perhaps(the younger sister of Nefertiti). Horemhab didn't have son in his life from Mutnedjmet as successor. Also he didn't have any children from Amenia (his first wife). Amenia died before her wife assumed power of the Egypt throne. In fact, the tomb of is beautiful tomb, but it didn't opened for many years to any one except the researchers.

Haremhab was a royal scribe and generalissimo of the army under King Tutankhamun. He continued to serve during the reign of Aya, and then became king himself. This statue was made before he ascended the throne. That Haremhab chose to be represented as a scribe indicates the importance of literacy in Egypt; it also puts Haremhab in an age-old tradition of depicting a great official as a “wise man” that is, a scribe. The great man sits slightly hunched over, and his eyes look downward, although not as far down as the papyrus scroll on which he is composing a hymn to the god Thoth, patron of scribes. The ink palette is on Haremhab’s left thigh, and his right hand now missing once held the brush. The hieroglyphs on the scroll face the writer, and one can see how Egyptians unrolled a papyrus with the left hand while reading and writing. As a badge of office Haremhab has a strap slung over his left shoulder from which hang two miniature writing kits, one on the chest, the other on the back of the shoulder. To proclaim loyalty to the newly reinstalled traditional religion, Haremhab has a figure of the god Amun incised on his forearm, perhaps indicating a tattoo. The scribe wears a long tunic of fine linen that reveals rolls of fat below his chest, which testify to maturity and the high status of the official. Pleats have been carefully pressed into the edges of the shirt that cover the arms like sleeves.

Haremhab has wrapped a long, wide pleated sash around the lower part of his body. The sash has been tied at the waist and the long ends have been looped back to tuck under the tie. The shawl also has been carefully pleated. The figure’s buttocks, thighs, and knees are covered with the linear pleat pattern, which contrasts with the smooth, round forms of the upper torso, arms, and the lower portion of the legs. A similar contrast is achieved between the delicately modeled facial features and the richly patterned wig. The triangular outline of the figure is opened up at the arms and elbows, and the statue’s overall symmetry is broken by the one-sided diagonal of the lower right leg. By such means the sculptor managed to imbue a basically quiescent pose with tension and vitality. Similar results were obtained in the head and face by contrasting the youthfully rounded facial features and heavy-lidded eyes of a thinker with an angular, almost harshly cut jaw and chin. Despite its elegance and beauty, this is undoubtedly the image of a man of action to be reckoned with. The horseshoe-shaped base forms an integral part of the whole composition, elevating the figure and at the same time contrasting its rich detail with the base’s simple outline and smooth surface. The base is inscribed with additional religious texts: prayers to Thoth, Sakhmet, Ptah Sokar, and Osiris. The latter two gods are connected with death and rebirth, and it has been suggested that the statue was originally created for Haremhab’s civilian tomb at Saqqara. However, a temple may also well have been the original location for this scribe statue of a great Egyptian.

Smenkhkare (1336–1334BC)

Akhenaten (who had Akhetaten as his political capital) in his life had 6 daughters by his Wife, the famous queen Nefertiti, but no sons. There is some doubts about his successor who likely was the pharaoh Smenkhare who appears briefly, though some historias suggest that this was a throne name of Nefertiti (as we will explain later), ruling after the death of her husband. The other historians believe that one of the mummies of Akhenaten is actually the mummy of Smenkhare. With that, may be Smenkhare was a half-brother of Akhenaten or the younger brother of him. Smenkhkare or Smenkhare reign after king Akhenaten and before the reign of Tutankhamun.

Most of the historians suggested that Smenkhkare rule for few months or one year at most. Other Egyptologists suggested that he rule more than 10 years. In any way his period considered an mysterious or abstruse period. Some scholars see that Smenkhkare was an other name of Nefertiti. The cartouche of Smenkhkare appeared in a piece of gold, but that piece was stolen when the tomb opened. Some historians see that Smenkhkare was the son of Amenhotep III or Akhenaten. But he was born three years before the reign of Akhenaten began, add to that the known about Akhenaten' parentage was just six daughters but no male, so that we can't say that he was the son of Akhenaten, the evidences refer to he was the son of Amenhotep III, and that is just suggests, but the fact is unknown to the historians. Few years after the reign of Smenkhare, Tutankhaten access the throne.

Dynasty 18 (18th Dynasty (c.1550-1292 BC))

The Dynasty 18 occurred in the New Kingdom age. Dynasty 18 Considered by historians to be the most important period in the history of ancient Egypt. King Ahmose was the first pharaoh of the Dynasty 18. He succeeded in saved Egypt and defeating the Hyksos. On view will be an extraordinary gilded ebony statue of Amunhotep III, whose reign was distinguished by the opulence and grandeur of the objects and buildings that it produced, a small jar decorated with a group of cattle and women; also a kneeling statue of Senenmut (official), the first chief advisor to the great female pharaoh the queen Hatshepsut. The Egyptian Empire came to the height in the age of the Eighteenth Dynasty, this dynasty was without peer in the ancient history. Egypt had never achieved such wealth and influence of the 18th dynasty's Pharaohs, and it would never again reach that rate of international influence. King Ahmos had driven the enemy (Hyksos) out of Lower Egypt and united Egypt under Theban rulers. King Amenhotep I Tuthmosis I, Tuthmosis II and Hatshepsut had successively orchestrated the internal secure and stability that allowed Egypt to flex its muscles both southward into Nubia and northward into Canaan and Syria. During the reigns of the next three Pharaohs—the mighty father-songrandson dynasties, Tuthmosis III, Amenhotep II, and Tuthmosis IV—the Egyptian realm surged to its greatest expanse, from far south in Nubian in Africa northward to the River Euphrates in the hinterlands of western side of Asia. After the building of the empire, about 158 years later, Dynasty 18 entered a period of decline, a period of implosion, slow decline at first, and step by step moved toward the ultimate collapse. After the unexpected death of king Tuthmosis IV, who ruled from 8 to 10 years only, two kings Amenhotep III and Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) allowed Egyptian control in Asia to decreased, and Egypt lost the orient domains one by one. So the scholars doubt if the Eighteenth Dynasty start military campaign into Syria and Canaan was during the rule of Tuthmosis IV. There are a certain evidence, from the last years of the reign of Amenhotep III, which found in Amarna that Egyptian Syrian and Canaanite princes in the Levant were very concerned about revolt in the region and were crying out for at least a small level of military support from their once-formidable Nilotic great lords, which never achieved. Add to that, Hittite attack and violent was rising against the kingdom of Mesopotamian of Mittani, whose rulers had been, since the reign of Tuthmosis IV (the brother of Pharaoh). The fact which remains that Egypt at this period either could not, or would not, respond with military assistance to the rapidly deteriorating situation in its now-former Asian provinces. Pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty: Ahmose I 1570–1546 Amenhotep I 1525–1504 Tuthmosis I 1524–1518 Tuthmosis II 1518–1504 Tuthmosis III 1504–1450 Hatshepsut† 1498–1483 Amenhotep II 1453–1419 Tuthmosis IV 1419–1386 Amenhotep III 1386–1349 Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten) 1350–1334 Smenkhkare 1336–1334 Tutankhamun 1334–1325 Ay 1325–1321 Horemheb 1321–1293 References: Steven Collins, How Low Did the Once-Great Egyptian Eighteenth Dynasty Sink? Grimal.N., A History of Egypt, Oxford 1992

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Amenemhet II (Nubkaure) 1929–1895

Amenemhet II was the third pharaoh of the dynasty 12. He was the son of king Sesostris I. His reign was a secure period in the ancient Egypt history although he ruled for along time about 34 years. The source for his reign is very limited. We can say that he continued in his father's efforts in foreign relations exactly with Levant where some gifts had been exchanges between the kings. Also the cartouche of Amenemhet II had been found in Lebanon. It is appear that some improvements occured in some field like the economy or trade and agriculture. Study Sources of Amenemhet II Period: In fact there is less documents belong to the reign of Amenemhet II. Some of the historical annals of his reign found on parts of his buildings. From that important buildings which have rich with the historical information about Amenemhet II and other pharaohs found at Mit Rahina. That provided the shcolars with more things about Amenemhet's buldings and statues and the military expeditions also the trading expeditions to Egypt in his reign. The name of Amenemhet II also were found on 4 boxes of bronze which found in Tod, also there ar some cups of silver of an Aegean origin. Mistakes of Amenemhet II: The scholars suggested that Amenemhet II have make big mistake when he depened on the nomarchs and the prime minister or his vizier, because those were basically the governors of the Egyptian provinces at this time, but he gave them more authority and great specifications. That made them have the title "king". Buildings of Amenemhet II: Some historians suggest theat Amenemhet didn't bult more buildings in his reign. The famous build is his pyramid which built it at Dahshure for unknown reasons.

Khnumhotep II:

The architect of Amenemhet II was Khnumhotep II, who presented more than one Service to the Pharaoh like building some monuments for Amenemhet II which had to be documented. This architect had the idea to exchange some text parts and words through the document. If this document would been stolen, the thief would not find the correct method to the treasure or the gold treasure.

Sphinx of Amenemhat II

Stadelman discovered famouse crime in the reign of Amenemhat II. That is his workmen had stolen stones on sledges from the pyramid of Sneferu, and used it as a vulgar quarry.

The Fourteenth Dynasty

Some scholars put the fourteenth dynasty in the middle kingdom with 11th dynasty, 12th dynasty and 13th dynasty. Other scholars put it in overlap figure between the thirteenth dynasty and fifteenth dynasty through what was called the Second Intermediate Period ( Age of the decline in the arts and and decrease of the skilled workers ).

The rulers of the fourteenth dynasty probably ruled from Avaris in eastern delta in the same time with the rulers of the Thirteenth Dynasty. The origin of its rulers maybe a Semitic origin, and this dynasty take about one hundred years of age.

There are about 76 rulers or more (according to Manetho) who set at the throne from that dynasty. List of its pharaohs found in Turin Papyrus.

The scholars recorded some known kings of that dynasty like Nehesi who ruled from Avaris and his name were found there. Other known king of that dynasty is Merdjefare his name found in eastern Delta also. There are other unknown kings from the fourteenth dynasty nothing found related to them except there names like Sewadjkare, Nebdjefare, Webenre, Khakherewre, Sehebre and Nebefawre. There is no more discovers or monuments back to this dynasty.

Turin Papyrus

Pharaohs Dynasties or Egyptian Dynasties

The name pharaohs which describe any king of Ancient Egypt is called by the later Greeks: the origin of that name came from the Egyptian per-aa, which mean ‘great house’. Most families of the Egyptian pharaohs and Egyptian queens are put in dynasties.

There are less sources about the earliest Egyptian pharaohs, so all information about them were just suggestions. No kings names recorded before 3100 BCE, so there period called Prehistoric by the historians. And most of the scholars mentioned that the Ancient Egypt civilization are generated from the civilization points or cities which were spread in the Egyptian regions before the predynastic or prehistoric period. This predynastic pionts like Naqada in Sohag, Badari in Assiut and Der Tasa.

Manetho, who lived in Egypt in the Hellenistic period divided the ancient Egyptian history into 30 dynasties. He begins with the year 3000 BCE and end with the year 343 BC with the king Nectanebo II. Nowadays the scholars compare Manetho's source with the records sources of the remained monuments and agreed that the number of all dynasties is 31.

By the efforts of the French scholars [Champollion] who discovered the symbols of the Rosetta Stone, the ancient Egyptian history became clear like the sun of Ankhenaten.

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Aswan monuments.

Power of the new kingdom

Ahmose I (1570–1546 BC)

Ahmose, whose name signifies "Child of the Moon," was certainly not of Theban origin. The moon was the heavenly habitation of the Egyptian Hermes, Thut, who upon earth was invoked by his disciples and adorers as "the thought and will" of the sun god Ra, his heavenly father, in his temple, in the midst of the frequently mentioned and much celebrated Ibis-town of Khmun-Hermopolis, on the left hand of the stream in Middle Egypt. According to ancient custom and usage, the name of this god, and that of his shining emblem in heaven, was with design chosen for the baptismal name of King Ahmose and of his mother "Aahhotep", "the moonly", and also of their offspring Thutmes, whose sovereignty ushered in the fortunate times of the eighteenth dynasty. Ahmose attacked his enemies by land and sea, conquered the chief seat of their strength, the fortress Auaris, so celebrated in history, and pursued the people of the foreigners far beyond the boundary of Egypt as far as the Canaanitish town Sheruhan. This place will be mentioned later, in the accounts of the wars of King Thutmes III. against Kanaan and Naharain as a resting place on the road from Egypt to the fortress of Gaza. It is not passed over in silence in Holy Scripture, since Sheruhan is expressly mentioned among the towns which fell to the lot of the inheritance of the tribe of Simeon in the South. In the tomb of the second Ahmose with the surname Pen Nukheb, this country, in which the King fought his Eastern battles, and in which Sheruhan was situated, is designated by its general name. It is the same Zahi, or Zaha, which was before mentioned.

In his tomb Ahmose is made to say, "My early life was passed in the time of the defunct King Ahmose, and of the defimct King Amenhotep I., and the defunct King Thutmes I., and the defunct King Thutmes I, and was finished in the time of Thutmes III. May he live long.' He then continues: I have reached a fortunate old age. I was during my existence in the favor of the king, and was rewarded by his Holiness, and was beloved by the royal court. And a divine woman gave me a further reward, the defunct great queen Makara (Hashop), because I had brought up her daughter, the great queen's daughter, the defunct Noferura." It was only such a treaty, founded on the concession and recognition of these rights, which enabled the enterprising Ahmose, after the death struggle for the expulsion of the foreigners, to secure himself against insurrection and jealous opposition in the interior of the country, and to lead his veteran warriors from Patoris upon a campaign against the rebellious negroes on the southern frontier of the country. Taking advantage of the weakness of the empire during the foreign dominion in the north, the widely spread tribes of To Chont on the Nubian districts of the south threw off the ancient yoke of the Pharaohs, and perhaps even set up an independent empire in the hot valleys near the dangerous cataracts of the Nile, which the kings of the twelfth dynasty had step by step wrung from their dusky neighbors. Ahmose, the chief of the sailors, has already related to us how Ahmose the king came out victorious from many struggles, in which a king named Tetan offered an obstinate resistance. So now not only the two halves of the empire were again reunited under the powerful sceptre of the Pharaoh, but the south was again subjected to Egyptian supremacy. Now at last had the time of leisure arrived, which allowed the king, according to the good old custom, to prove his gratitude, as a beloved son of the Gods, by embellishing and extending their temples. During the long dominion of the foreigners ' the temples had fallen into decay since the times of our forefathers, and the Pharaoh Ahmose, in the twenty-second year of his reign, gave the command to reopen the deserted quarries in the Arabian chain of mountains, to draw therefrom limestone for the building of the temples in Memphis, Thebes, and the other principal cities of the empire. According to ancient prescribed usage, which had already been practiced by the scribes in the reign of one of the Amenemhats of the twelfth dynasty, the fact was brought to the knowledge of the then existing and future generations by two rock tablets in the quarries of Toora and Maassara, in the neighborhood of the future town of the Khalifs, in the city of Cairo. The engraved words read thus : "In the twenty-second year of the reign of King Ahmose, his Holiness gave the order to open anew the rock chambers, and there to cut out the best white stone (limestone) of the hill country (of the name of) An, for the houses of the Gods of endless years' duration, for the home of the divine Ptah in Memphis, for Amon, the gracious god in Thebes..and for all the other monuments, which his Hohness carried out. The stone was drawn by bullocks, which were brought and given over to the foreign people of the Fenekh." It was only such a treaty, founded on the concession and recognition of these rights, which enabled the enterprising Ahmose, after the death struggle for the expulsion of the foreigners, to secure himself against insurrection and jealous opposition in the interior of the country, and to lead his veteran warriors from Patoris upon a campaign against the rebellious negroes on the southern frontier of the country. See Ahmose wife: Queen Nofretari

Ahhotep I (1560- 1530 BCE)

Ahhotep I (1560- 1530 BCE), Ancient Egyptian queen from the Seventeenth dynasty, Tao I was her father and Tetisheri was her mother. She is the wife and the sister of the pharaoh Tao II in the same time. It was believed that she was the mother of the Egyptian pharaohs Ahmose I and Kamose.

Some historians believed that Ahhotep I the founder of the dynasty 18. But no doubt that Ahmose Ebana was the founder of the dynasty, because he was drive out the Hyksos from the Egypt land. She died in 1530BC after long life [about 90 years old], her tomb at Thebes beside Kamose in Aswan. Her tomb consist of fly and bracelets (three golden fly and and golden bracelets). Her tomb was discovered in 1859AD in Thebes near the Valley of the Kings [in Dra Abu el-Naga]. Her mummy found in bad affection in the coffin.