Thutmose

Thutmose III (1425 BC), sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty, He is considered the greatest ruler of Egypt and one of the most powerful emperors in history, the conqueror of the ancient world, and the true founder of the first and greatest great empires in the history of the world. It is the Egyptian empire that extended from the upper Euphrates River in the Levant, to the Fourth Cataract in the country of Nubia in the south. He is known as the undisputed greatest military leader and strategic thinker in the history of the ancient world. That empire remained until about 1070 BC until the reign of Ramses XI.

 Thutmose III had great credit for making Egypt the great political and military power in the ancient Near East, thanks to his unique military victories that changed the face of history, as he led the Egyptian army in 16 victorious war campaigns in the Levant, conquering all political and military forces from empires and countries And the kingdoms opposed to Egyptian influence in the region in the Old Testament, and the founders of a great Egyptian empire in the Levant, were credited with maintaining Egyptian national security for hundreds of years.

Thutmose III had superhuman traits and an unparalleled military genius. Thutmose trained on the battlefields of Luxor. These exercises earned him a hardness of character and great military experience at the time when Hatshepsut was ruling. He took care of the army and made it regular and provided it with cavalry and war chariots, as during his reign the ancient Egyptians mastered It was thanks to him that arrows and arrows were made, which became of uncanny permeability recognized by modern historians.

 The statues of Thutmose III show us this muscular young man who possessed the elements of a fighter and a leader. At the time when Hatshepsut was ruling, she was following a peaceful policy with the Egyptian areas of influence in Palestine and Nubia and with her neighbors, and she was interested in the navy and sent naval campaigns to the country of Punt and to the coasts of Lebanon for exchange. Commercial, some protectorates in Syria and Mitanni took advantage of the rebellion against the rule of the Egyptians and their hostility.

As soon as Tuthmosis III ascended the throne after the death of Hatshepsut, he had to restore Egyptian control over these hostile movements to secure the country's borders. Those consequences made him a legendary warrior king who carried out sixteen military campaigns on Asia (the region of Syria and Palestine).

The Emir of the city of Kadesh in Syria was leading an alliance of the princes of the Asian countries in the Levant against Egypt, numbering twenty-three armies, and it was expected that Thutmose III would support his defenses and forces on the Egyptian borders near Sinai, but Thutmose decided to go with his huge armies to confront these armies in their lands within A plan to expand the Egyptian empire to the maximum extent possible and to secure the borders against the harassing armies.

Thutmose III built castles and fortresses, trained soldiers on the best training and supplied them with powerful innovative weapons such as modern arrows and expanded the use of chariots in combat. Phenicia (the coasts of Lebanon and Palestine today).

 In the campaign of the Battle of Megiddo, he divided his army into a heart and two wings, and used military tactics and maneuvers that were not known before. Then he rose at the head of his army from Qantara and traveled 150 miles in ten days, after which he reached Gaza and then traveled eighty miles in eleven days between Gaza and one of the cities at the foot of Mount Carmel. There Thutmose III held a war council with his officers after he learned that the Emir Kadesh came to the city of Megiddo and gathered around him 230 princes with their armies and camped in the fortified Megiddo to stop the advance of Thutmose III and his army. There were three ways to reach Megiddo, two of them revolve around the foot of Mount Carmel, and the third is a narrow corridor, but leads directly to Megiddo. Thutmose decided that the army should pass through the third corridor in an adventure that turned the scales of the battle later, and it is considered one of the most dangerous adventures of armies in the ancient world .

 His forces attacked and he was at their head in a semi-circle on Megiddo, so the surprise was that the Egyptians initiated this sweeping attack, so they became confused and lost their balance until their armies became in a state of chaos and disorder and the leaders of the armies and companies began to flee, leaving behind their large vehicles and their camp full of spoils to enter the fortified city.

 The consequence of the army's departure in collecting the spoils at the time that Tuthmosis III was forced to besiege Megiddo for seven long months until the princes surrendered and sent their sons carrying weapons to hand them over to King Tuthmosis III.

And the Egyptian army and its king, King Thutmose III, returned to Egypt, with a number of the sons of the princes, to live in Egypt under the supervision of the Egyptians, so that the princes would not dare to rebel again.

Thutmose III summoned the sons of the princes of the Asian regions to Thebes, the capital of Egypt at that time, to learn in its schools the Egyptian customs and traditions, educate them with the Egyptian culture, and instill in them the love of Egypt, even if they returned to their country and assumed power in it, they became his loyal followers and certainly it is not possible to think of war on Egypt.

Thutmose III built many temples in Thebes, including two temples, one of them next to the Temple of Hatshepsut in Deir al-Bahari.

 And he built a temple for the god Ptah in his homeland in Memphis, and he has a temple in Amda and Suminah, and he built a temple in Elephantine for the goddess Sat, and he has monuments in Kom Ombo, Edfu, Ain Shams and Armant.

Tuthmosis III built at least seven obelisks, most of which are now found in a number of capitals of the world, including the one in London (it is one of two obelisks set up by Thutmose III in front of the Sun Temple in Heliopolis)

 Another obelisk currently in Istanbul is one of the two obelisks built by Thutmose in front of the Seventh Pylon (Great Gate) at Karnak Temple.

He has another obelisk located in New York, which Thutmose built in front of the Temple of the Sun. Years until Tuthmosis IV found it and set it up in the place it was intended for, and it is now located in Rome in front of the Church of St. John in the Lateran.

Thutmose died at the age of 82, after he ruled for fifty-four years, as stated in the text of Amenemhat. “The history of Egypt was not known for a king over whom the Egyptians cried and grieved greatly, as happened with Thutmose III. After his death, mourning and royal burial ceremonies were held. funeral in ancient history,

 Thutmose III is considered one of the outstanding geniuses in military history throughout the ages, and his military plans are studied in many military colleges and institutes all over the world: he was the first to divide the army into a heart and two wings,

 He was buried in a cemetery in the Valley of the Kings that he had prepared for himself, which is cemetery No. 34, as he is one of the first kings to build tombs for themselves in the Valley of the Kings, and his tomb was discovered in 1898 by the scientist Victor Loret and found the cemetery had been looted and the mummy that was found was not in it. In Deir el-Bahari in 1881.

 And one of his most famous sayings to his famous minister, Rekhmi Ra: “The Lord is not satisfied with partiality (corruption), be vigilant, for the position of the minister is the foundation of the whole earth. It is not for the minister to enslave the people. Listen to the complainant from the south, the delta, or any place. Who you know and who you don't know...