King Tutankhamun

King Tutankhamun was an Egyptian Pharaoh during Egypt's eighteenth dynasty, approximately 1333 BC-1324BC, in the Egyptian time period of the New Kingdom. His name meant "living image of Amun, Ruler of Upper Egyptian Heliopolis", and it is commonly used in paying honor to the divine being. He was born to his father Akhenaten and Kiya, who is commonly thought to be his mother and a lesser wife of Akhenaten. The original name given to him at birth was Tutankhaten, which put him in the line of pharaohs following Akhenaten. Later however a minor alteration changed the ending letters of his name from aten to amun, which hence gave him the name Tutankhamun.

King Tut was only about eight or nine years old when he became pharaoh and reigned for approximately ten years. It was during these early years that he spent most of his time in Amarna and the North Palace and within this stage that he got married to his half sister Ankhesenpaaten. They later had two daughters, who were stillborn, but had no sons.

One of the main priorities during his reign was to reverse Akhenaten's Amarna revolution. In year 3 of Tutankhamen's reign (1331), while he was still a boy, probably about eleven, and under the influence of two older advisors, (who were probably Akhenaten's vizier Ay and possibly Nefertiti), the ban on the old pantheon of the deities and their temples was lifted, the traditional privileges were restored to their priesthoods, and the capital was moved back to Thebes. (Clayton, 129) These adjustments were made to restore order to the chaos produced by Akhenaten and the changes were most likely caused by his advisors because of his age at the time.

Tut also carried out extensive building projects while king. He started his building work at Karnak and Luxor, which included the continuation of the entrance of colonnades of the Amenhotep III temple at Luxor, including associated statues, and his embellishment of the Karnak temple with images of Amun, Amunet, and Khonsu. There were also many statues and sphinxes depicting Tutankhamun himself, in addition to a small temple in the king's name. Another primary building city was a Kawa, where he built a temple which included a pair of granite lions.

Military wise, little happened during the reign of King Tut, which is surprising because one of his advisors was a well known general. But seemingly there were campaigns occurring in Nubia and Palestine/Syria, but this information is only known from a brightly painted box that was found in the king's tomb. However, it is very unlikely that Tutankhamun would have actually taken part in the military actions directly, and the campaigns that took place did not have much success.Tutankhamun died young, most likely at the age of eighteen or nineteen, during his ninth regnal year as king. There is no solid evidence as to the cause of his death, but is commonly believed that he was murdered, as indicated by a small sliver of bone in his cranial cavity. This could be a sign that someone had deliberately struck him.

King Tut's tomb is located in the Valley of the King's and is by far the best preserved royal tomb ever discovered. A man by the name of Howard Carter led the expedition in opening his tomb. After drilling a hole through the plaster wall in order to peer into the king's chamber, he stood in amazement at the sight of lavish gold furnishings. They found thrashed chariots, which were most likely broken by tomb robbers who were looking for gold. They also found two life-sized statues of guards holding maces and staffs. He also noticed that the only room that was decorated was the burial chamber wall. These four walls were painted with scenes of Tutankhamun's funeral and the underworld. His sarcophagus was in the chamber as well. It consisted of three coffins; the innermost was of solid gold, the outer two of wood overlaid with gold. The King's mummy lay in the midst of its entire splendor with its famous gold mask. (Silverman 35) This mask became famous, which was significant in Tut's case because ancient pharaohs believed that if their name was remembered, there soul would live on. He also thought of it a blessing to have been a boy-king, through which his character was truly powerful.


Clayton, Peter A. Chronicle of the Pharaohs: New York: Thames and Hudson
Ltd., 1994.

Silverman, David P. Ancient Egypt. New York: Oxford University Press: 1997

Shuter, Jane. People Who Made History in Ancient Egypt. Austin Texas:
Steck-Vaughn Company: 2001

Ramses II

King Ramses the II, also known as Ramses the Great, was the third ruler during Egypt's nineteenth dynasty. He ruled from 1304 to 1237 BC, and was regarded as the greatest pharaoh in Egyptian history. During his long reign of 67 years, everything was done on a grand scale. No other pharaoh constructed so many temples or erected so many colossal statues and obelisks. (Clayton, 146) He provided the strong rule that Egypt so desperately needed.

Ramses also remains a significant Pharaoh to the story of the Exodus. (Shuter 35) The Hebrew people were set to work on the construction of the many new temples for the Pharaoh. God, taking pity of the Hebrew people, commanded Pharaoh to let them go. Pharaoh stubbornly resisted and endured many disasters until all the first born Egyptian children mysteriously died; it was then that he finally let them go.
Ramses II was born to Queen Tuy and his father Seti I in the year 1279 B.C. He was well informed at a young age that he was his family's only hope of keeping power in Egypt, since his older brother had passed away. Beginning his reign at about the age of twenty, it is recorded that he had eight wives. His two main wives were Nefertari and Istnofet. It was presumed that he had over one hundred kids with his collection of wives.

He set out on many campaigns to return territories that had been previously owned by the Nubians and to secure Egypt's borders. He displayed that he was a productive ruler when he fought to reclaim territory in Africa and Western Asia. He focused on defeating his main enemy- the Hittites. During his fifth year as pharaoh, he led a campaign known as the Battle of Kadesh. Ramses II tried to keep the newly acquired territory (modern- day Syria) but lost the battle to his enemy. Seen as an impasse, Ramses II pulled back and Kadesh remained with the Hittites once more. However, a peace treaty was later signed which divided the territory. He also attacked other enemy groups within his duration as pharaoh, such as the Libyans and the Nubians; this depicted his military might.

One of the greatest accomplishments of Rameses II, and seen throughout his reign, was his love for architecture, and he stands unsurpassed among the pharaohs of Egypt as a monument builder. There are accounts of his honor hewn on stone, statues, and remains of palaces and temples. The most prominent being the Ramesseum in western Thebes and at the rock temples of Abu Simbel. The great complex of Ramesseum was built in between the Qurna and a desert known as Ramesseum. The compound stood as a monument of the great pharaoh and his army for achieving success over the Hittite forces. This was built in epic proportion in order to indicate that his legacy would survive the threshold of time. The building of these monuments indicated the beginning of the pharaoh's passion for building.

In year 67, or 1212 BC, the great pharaoh, who was perhaps 96 years of age when he died, was buried in the famous location of the Valley of Kings. After the death of Ramses II this brought to a conclusion the last climax of Egypt's imperial power with few Pharaohs ever equaling his greatness as Ramses was an impressive ruler with his kingdom prospering greatly throughout his reign. It is often said that the popular perception of him was "as a model of what a king should be." (Baikie 234)It is apparent as to why he was known as Ramses the Great and even to this day, no structures are as brilliant as the structures built in that day. Ramses’ mummy can be seen in Cairo’s Egyptian museum.

Baikie, James. Story of the Pharaohs. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1917.

Clayton, Peter A. Chronicle of the Pharaohs. New York: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1998.

Shuter, Jane. Ancient Egypt. Austin Texas: Steck-Vaughn Company, 2001.

The Reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten

Akhenaten, whose name meant "Effetive Spirit of Aten", known as a philosopher and a thinker was pharaoh during Egypt's eighteenth dynasty. He promoted a view of the world that challenged the foundations of Egyptian belief. One of the most profound things that he did as pharaoh was to revolutionize religion; specifically compelling the Egyptian population to monotheism towards the god Aten. He also made major changes in acient Egyptian art, moved the capital of Egypt from Thebes to el-Amanna, and presented himself in a way that differed from any of his predecessors.

Akhenaten's reign lead to the reform of Egyptian art, which once had strict rules about how to draw people and what colors should be used. Under Akhenaten, a new, more natural approach was developed.(Clayton 124) One of the most unusual results of the art reformation was the depiction of the physical characteristics of Akhenaten himself. In many sculptures and paintings, he is shown to have a long neck and face with a sharp chin, narrow almond-shaped eyes, as well as a rounded stomach. According to the most popular belief, he suffered from Froehlich's Syndrome. It is also believed that the way he looked was some form of religious symbolism. It has been suggested that he was made to look this way in artwork as a representation of the god Aten.

The nature of Akhenaten's religious revolution was well established and clearly portrayed as he overthrew Egyptian polytheism in favor of worship of the single god Aten. His religion did center on one god, but the major importance was on Aten's visibility, tangibility, and irrefutable actuality; Akhenaten put no emphasis on faith. His religious revolution is viewed as a turning point in Egypt's belief system. This is because he turned away from polytheism and replaced it with monotheism, which was unheard of at that time. Akhenaten could implement this change because pharaohs ran the country and the church and opposition was not an opinion.(Shuter 27) However, this quickly diminished when his reign as pharaoh ended.

Another significant time in Egyptian history when Akhenaten was pharaoh was known as the Armana Period. He left Thebes with his family and moved to a new capital located in Middle Egypt, which was half way between Memphis and Thebes. He did this because he had a vision wherein he saw a sun disc between two mountains with the god Aten appearing in the sun disk, indicating the light. It was from this that he felt guided to build a new city bewtween the two mountains. When traveling 180 miles north of Thebes to the location, he discovered that the site had not been dedicated to any other gods or goddesses and this persuaded him to name it Akhenaten-The Horizon of the Aten. He then built an entire city devoted to Aten; complete with a necropolis and royal tomb. Work began on this new city in 1346 B.C. and was complete in 1344 B.C.

Akhenaten neglected foreign policy and showed little interest in keeping its borders safe. Akhenaten has been portrayed as a pharaoh who wanted to make everyone content, and in doing so tried to create a beautiful, optimistic religion and utopian place to live, while paying little attention to serious matters. History has been more realistic about the actuality of his reign and described Akhenaten as not living within the reality of his worshippers.(Stalcup 145) Around the eighteenth year of his ruling, in the year 1334 B.C., Akhenaten died with the circumstances never fully explained.

Akhenaten had a major influence through the reforms he made during this remarkable period in history. Some scholars have suggested that Akhenaten's reforms were the first genuine scholarly revolution in recorded history.(Silverman 129) What has been clearly shown is that Akhenaten's ideas were not accepted by most Egyptians. Through the course of history, what can be gleaned and memorable is that Akhenaten's changes affected most aspects of Egyptian culture even though his intellectual revolution seemed doomed to failure after his death.

Clayton, Peter A. Chronicle of the Pharoahs. New York: Thames and Hudson,

Ltd., 1998.

Shuter, Jane. Ancient Egypt. Austin, Texas: Steck-Vaughn Company, 2001.

Silverman, David P. Ancient Egypt. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Stalcup, Brenda. Ancient Egypt Civilization. California: Greenhaven Press,

Inc., 2001.