Thutmose III, King of Egypt (1479-1425 BC)

Thutmose III spent the first two decades of his reign in co-regency with his father's wife, Hatshepsut. One of the first acts of Thutmose III's sole rule was to launch a campaign against the Mitanni and the prince of Kadesh, who encouraged Egypt's vassal states in Syria-Palestine to revolt.

The events of this campaign are recorded in the Temple of Amun-Re at Karnak. Thutmose III defeated the enemy by arriving unexpectedly at Megiddo. He chose to follow a torturous and potentially dangerous ravine, rather than the two easier routes. The enemy army was defeated in battle and fled to the town, which was besieged for seven months before surrendering. Thutmose III campaigned in Syria every summer for the next eighteen years, and also sent expeditions to Nubia. His great military activity has given rise to the modern epithet 'the Napoleon of ancient Egypt'.

The spoils of Thutmose III's many campaigns were lavished on the temples of Egypt, especially that of Amun-Re at Karnak, where the decoration of his festival hall illustrated exotic animals and plants, which were brought back from Syria. His tomb in the Valley of the Kings was the first fully-decorated burial chamber. The body of Thutmose III was found in the Deir el-Bahari cache.