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2055 BCE
Temple of Karnak
For the largely uneducated ancient Egyptian population, this could only have been the place of the gods. It is the largest religious building ever made, covering about 200 acres (1.5 km by 0.8 km), and was a place of pilgrimage for nearly 2,000 years. The area of the sacred enclosure of Amun alone is sixty-one acres and could hold ten average European cathedrals. The great temple at the heart of Karnak is so big that St Peter’s, Milan, and Notre Dame Cathedrals would fit within its walls. -
Period: 1640 BCE to 1530 BCE
Hyksos in power
This is widely considered to be the 17th Dynasty. They controlled the lower Nile (near Memphis and ruled from Averis) but while they were in power to the north (lower Nile) the traditional rulers of Egypt lived and ruled from Thebes (so Egypt was split, basically). The traditional pharaoh at this time was King Seqenenre and he had two sons, Kamose and Ahmose. -
1558 BCE
King Seqenenre Tao killed by Hyksos
Kind Seqenenre Tao was killed by the Hyksos during his failed rebellion probably around 1558 BCE. -
1551 BCE
King Kamose sudden death
A few years after the death of his father, Kamose defeated some of the Hyksos in his “war of liberation” (when Ahmose was too young to fight) and although he returned triumphantly to Thebes, he died unexpectedly and mysteriously (probably of wounds sustained in the fighting) -
Period: 1550 BCE to 712 BCE
The New Kingdom
The New Kingdom of Egypt, also referred to as the Egyptian Empire, is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of Egypt. -
Period: 1550 BCE to 1292 BCE
Dynasty XVIII
The pharaohs of 18th Dynasty ruled for approximately two hundred and fifty years -
Period: 1550 BCE to 1525 BCE
Reign of Ahmose I
Succeeded his possible brother or half brother, Kamose who is regarded as the last King of the Seventeenth Dynasty. Ahmose was responsible for the expulsion of the Hyksos and the reunification of Egypt. -
1532 BCE
Ahmose defeats the Hyksos
Around 1532 BCE, Ahmose finally led military campaigns against the Hyksos rulers to the north and defeated them (but didn’t expel them entirely), thus unifying Egypt. This was the beginning of the New Kingdom of Egypt and the start of the 18th Dynasty (the most glorious dynasty of all time). -
Period: 1525 BCE to 1504 BCE
Reign of Amenhotep I
Began reconquering Nubia and consolidating Egyptian control over it. Was the first the deliberately suggest an expansion of trade into Nubia for gold in Kush, more taxes in the form of agriculture and good from tropical Africa such as ivory or animal skins. -
Period: 1504 BCE to 1492 BCE
Reign of Tuthmosis I (Thutmose I)
During his reign, he campaigned deep into the Levant and Nubia, pushing the borders of Egypt further than ever before. He also built many temples in Egypt as well as he was the first king to be buried in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes, which he built for himself. -
Period: 1492 BCE to 1479 BCE
Reign of Tuthmosis II (Thutmose II)
During his reign Thutmose put down Kushite rebellions in Nubia and revolts by bedouins in Canaan and continued temple construction, albeit on a small scale only, at Karnak. -
1479 BCE
Battle of Megiddo
Thutmose III destroyed a Syrian-Canaanite coalition employing mercenary armies and chariots. On the east bank of the river Euphrates in Nahrin, he defeated the forces of the kingdom of Mitanni, which had been extending its power in the Middle East. Thutmose III expanded his navy and used it to transport his armies swiftly to the Phoenician coast, while in Nubia and Kush he extended his rule beyond the fourth cataract. -
Period: 1479 BCE to 1425 BCE
Reign of Tuthmosis III (Thutmose III)
During the first twenty-two years of Thutmose's reign he was co-regent with his stepmother, Hatshepsut, who was named the pharaoh. During the final two years of his reign, he appointed his son-and successor-Amenhotep II, as his junior co-regent. When Thutmose III died, he was buried in the Valley of the Kings. -
Period: 1479 BCE to 1458 BCE
Reign of Hatshepsut
Hatshepsut became the longest reigning female pharaoh of the indigenous dynasty. She encouraged commercial expansion and sent a trading expedition to Punt. It was primarily a trading expedition busy with buying myrrh, frankincense and fragrant unguents used for cosmetics and in religious ceremonies, but some animals and plants were also collected, brought back to Egypt and depicted on Hatshepsut's temple walls at Deir el-Bahri, near Luxor in the Valley of the Kings; where she is buried. -
Period: 1427 BCE to 1400 BCE
Reign of Amenhotep II
He continued the military exploits of his father, particularly in Syria, where he crushed an uprising and demanded oaths of loyalty from local rulers. His mummy was discovered in the Valley of the Kings. -
1400 BCE
Temple of Luxor
The temple is dedicated to Amun, Mut, and Khonsu and was the focus of one of the most important religious festivals in ancient Egypt - the annual Opet Festival. During this festival the cult statues of Amun, Mut and Khonsu would travel from Karnak to Luxor. As a result, the temple is not aligned to the river (as is more usual) but to the temple complex at Karnak. -
Period: 1400 BCE to 1390 BCE
Reign of Tuthmosis IV (Thutmose IV)
Campaigned in Nubia and Retenu. He concluded a treaty with the Babylonians and entered into an alliance with the Mitanni by marrying Artatama's daughter. -
1392 BCE
Tuthmosis IV defeats rebels
He swiftly gathered and led his army with a riverborne force and defeated the rebels, who probably had endangered the rich gold country of eastern Nubia. -
Period: 1390 BCE to 1353 BCE
Reign of Amenhotep III
Egypt at the height of its power. His extensive diplomatic contacts with other Near Eastern states, especially Mitanni and Babylonia, are revealed in the Amarna tablets. Of the great temple he built near Thebes, only two statues, the so-called colossi of Memnon, remain. Amenhotep's wife Tiye, a woman of non-royal birth, was prominently associated with him during his long and peaceful reign. -
Period: 1353 BCE to 1336 BCE
Reign of Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV)
He was invested as king not in the Amen temple at Karnak as custom dictated, but at Hermonthis, where his uncle Inen was High Priest of Re and immediately began building a roofless temple to the Aten, the disk of the rising sun. He soon forbade the worship of other gods, especially of the state god Amen of Thebes. In the 6th year he changed his name from Amenhotep ("Amen is satisfied") to Akhenaten ("beneficial to Aten") and left Thebes for a new capital at Akhetaten (El Amarna). -
Period: 1336 BCE to 1327 BCE
Reign of Tutankhamun
He succeeded his brother Smenkhkare when he was only nine years old. His vizier Ay restored the traditional polytheistic religion, abandoning the monotheistic cult of Aten of Akhenaten, its religious centre at el Amarna and returning to the capital Thebes. By reviving the cult of the state god Amen he strengthened the position of Amen's priesthood. The pharaoh changed his name Tutankhaten, (living image of Aten), to Tutankhamen, (living image of Amen). -
Period: 1327 BCE to 1320 BCE
(possible) Reign of Ay
Ay acceded to the throne despite Horemheb's claim to be the designated successor. His accession to the throne may have been an attempt on the part of the Egyptians to appease the Hittites, by whom they had just been defeated. -
Period: 1320 BCE to 1292 BCE
Reign of Horemheb
The last Pharaoh of the Dynasty XVIII. He erased all memory of the Amarna Period, restores Egyptian culture, and destroys the city of Akhetaten (Amarna). -
1274 BCE
Battle of Kadesh
