Egypt's empire age stretched from Ahmose to the Ramessides
The New Kingdom—Egypt's imperial peak—covers the Eighteenth through Twentieth Dynasties from the sixteenth to the eleventh century BC. Radiocarbon work places its start between 1570 and 1544 BC. German scholar Bunsen coined the golden-age label in 1845; the later Ramesside centuries take their name from eleven pharaohs called Ramesses.
After Hyksos rule in the Second Intermediate Period, kings pushed into the Levant to Egypt's greatest extent and deep into Nubia against Kushite pressure. Ahmose I reunified the land, continuing Seqenenre Tao and Kamose's wars, then campaigned into the Hyksos homeland. Thutmose I reached the Euphrates—the first pharaoh to cross it—though Syrian tribute lapsed once he left.
Hatshepsut, daughter of Thutmose I and wife of Thutmose II, governed with child Thutmose III then in her own right and built extensively. Thutmose III forged a professional army that cemented empire; wealth peaked under Amenhotep III. Famous Eighteenth Dynasty names also include Akhenaten and Tutankhamun. During Thutmose III's reign (c. 1479–1425 BC) pharaoh shifted from palace name to royal address.
The Nineteenth (1295–1189 BC) and Twentieth (1189–1069 BC) Dynasties form the Ramesside era before the Third Intermediate Period. Expansion born of insecurity remade Egypt from a recovering kingdom into an empire whose monuments still define popular imagination.
Individual reigns supply the superlatives. Thutmose III, often judged a military genius, fought at least 16 campaigns in 20 years and is credited with taking 350 cities. Amenhotep III, the richest king of the dynasty, raised the Luxor Temple and the Malkata palace, the biggest ever built in Egypt. Amenhotep IV renamed himself Akhenaten to honour the Aten, and his devotion to that single god is often read as the first monotheism, while Hittite influence crept into the Levant as he looked inward. With no surviving children, Horemheb passed the crown to his vizier, who became Ramesses I; Ramesses II later beat Sherden raiders and folded them into his army.
Source: New Kingdom of Egypt
