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

The Dynasty 18 occured 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