Thutmose III

He was a young boy, overshadowed by his stepmother Hatshepsut, when the throne came to him. Forced to wait in her shadow for twenty years, he spent his youth in the army, transforming himself into a master military strategist. When she passed away, he emerged from the court ready to march.

Over the next three decades, he led seventeen brilliant military campaigns, marching his armies across the Levant and deep into Nubia. At the Battle of Megiddo, he surprised the rebellious Syrian princes by leading a force of twenty thousand soldiers through a narrow, dangerous mountain pass, capturing their coalition forces.

He established Egypt's absolute imperial dominance, receiving tribute from the kings of Babylon, Assyria, and the Hittites. Scribes carved the records of his victories on the walls of Karnak, creating the detailed "Annals."

His military genius stretched the empire from the Euphrates River in the north to the fourth cataract of the Nile in the south. He left behind an aggressive military state that dominated the ancient Near East, remembered down the centuries as the greatest warrior king of Kemet.