Thutmose III Dies: Egypt's Greatest Conqueror

No pharaoh conquered more territory. Thutmose III led at least seventeen military campaigns over two decades, expanding Egypt from the Fourth Cataract of the Nile deep into Nubia to the banks of the Euphrates River in modern Syria. By his death around 1425 BC, after a reign of 54 years, Egypt controlled the largest empire it would ever possess. Thutmose spent the first twenty-two years of his reign in the shadow of his stepmother, Hatshepsut, who ruled as regent and then as pharaoh in her own right. When she died around 1458 BC, Thutmose assumed sole power and immediately launched the military campaigns that defined his legacy. His first and most celebrated victory came at the Battle of Megiddo, where he led his army through a narrow mountain pass that his generals advised against, catching a coalition of Canaanite kings by surprise and routing their forces outside the fortress walls. The Megiddo campaign established a pattern Thutmose would repeat across the Near East: bold tactical decisions, rapid marches, and diplomatic follow-through that converted defeated enemies into tribute-paying vassals. He crossed the Euphrates during his eighth campaign, erecting a victory stela beside the one his grandfather Thutmose I had placed there decades earlier. Naval operations along the Levantine coast secured port cities that provided logistical support for inland campaigns. Beyond military conquest, Thutmose was a prolific builder. He expanded the Temple of Karnak significantly, erected obelisks that still stand in Istanbul and Rome, and commissioned detailed annals of his campaigns carved into temple walls. These records, among the earliest detailed military accounts in history, provide scholars with an unusually precise understanding of Bronze Age warfare. Thutmose III died having transformed Egypt from a regional power into the dominant empire of the ancient world, a position it would hold for nearly a century after his death.