Ancient egypt pharaoh biography

He conducted military campaigns in the Levant and conquered most of Palestine. He built many monuments and collected a vast amount of booty from his military campaigns. Amenhotep II ruled for almost thirty years and his depictions show him as an athletic man. He built various temples including one to worship Horemakhet, a god associated with the Great Sphinx.

Later records said that harvests during his time were rich and he became a fertility god. Click here to discover more about Amenhotep III. Many scholars believe that his reign did not overlap with that of his father because he might have had an older brother. He ruled for less than twenty years but his reign had a great impact. Akhenaten, also spelled Echnaton, came to the throne at a time when the priests of Amun were wealthy and powerful.

He built a temple to Aten at Karnak during the first few years of his reign. In the fifth year of his reign, Akhenaten built a new capital at Amarna called Akhetaten. He changed his name and declared Aten the only god in Egypt. The military supported this move at the beginning of his reign but many people still worshiped the old gods in private. His wife was an important part of his religious rituals and depictions of her making sacrifices exist at Amarna.

Neferneferuaten was a female pharaoh from the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom. Scholars believe that she ruled as a co-regent with Akhenaten and some believe she might have ruled in her own right after his death. Scholars differ about her identity though they agree on two candidates. Some scholars believe she was Meritaten, the oldest daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti.

Tutankhamun was a pharaoh from the 18th Dynasty, during the New Kingdom, and he is the best known pharaoh today. He was the son of Akhenaten and became pharaoh at the age of nine. During the first year of his reign, Tutankhamun abandoned Amarna and restored the cults of the old gods. His regent was Horemheb who was a senior military official. Tutankhamun restored the power of Thebes and died after around ten years of rule.

For this reason, tomb-robbers never found his tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Egyptologists found his treasures and his body intact when they excavated his tomb in the s. Ramses I was part of the 19th Dynasty, during the New Kingdom, and later historians claimed that he founded this dynasty. Ramses I and his heirs considered Horemheb the founder of their dynasty.

He ruled for less than a year and set his son up as his heir immediately after gaining the throne. In English, the term was at first spelled "Pharao", but the translators for the King James Bible revived "Pharaoh" with "h" from the Hebrew. As a central figure of the state, the pharaoh was the obligatory intermediary between the gods and humans.

To the former, he ensured the proper performance of rituals in the temples ; to the latter, he guaranteed agricultural prosperity, the defense of the territory and impartial justice. In the sanctuaries, the image of the sovereign is omnipresent through parietal scenes and statues. In this iconography , the pharaoh is invariably represented as the equal of the gods.

In the religious speech, he is however only their humble servant, a zealous servant who makes multiple offerings. This piety expresses the hope of a just return of service. Filled with goods, the gods must favorably activate the forces of nature for a common benefit to all Egyptians. The only human being admitted to dialogue with the gods on an equal level, the Pharaoh was the supreme officiant; the first of the priests of the country.

More widely, the pharaonic gesture covered all the fields of activity of the collective and ignored the separation of powers. Also, every member of the administration acts only in the name of the royal person, by delegation of power. From the Pyramid Texts , the political actions of the sovereign were framed by a single maxim: "Bring Maat and repel Isfet ", that is to say, promote harmony and repel chaos.

As the nurturing father of the people, the Pharaoh ensured prosperity by calling upon the gods to regulate the waters of the Nile , by opening the granaries in case of famine and by guaranteeing a good distribution of arable land. Chief of the armies, the pharaoh was the brave protector of the borders. Like Ra who fights the serpent Apophis , the king of Egypt repels the plunderers of the desert, fights the invading armies and defeats the internal rebels.

The Pharaoh was always the sole victor; standing up and knocking out a bunch of prisoners or shooting arrows from his battle chariot. As the only legislator, the laws and decrees he promulgated were seen as inspired by divine wisdom. This legislation, kept in the archives and placed under the responsibility of the vizier , applied to all, for the common good and social agreement.

Sceptres and staves were a general symbol of authority in ancient Egypt. Another scepter associated with the king is the was -sceptre. The earliest known depictions of the was -scepter date to the First Dynasty. The was -scepter is shown in the hands of both kings and deities. The flail later was closely related to the heqa -scepter the crook and flail , but in early representations the king was also depicted solely with the flail, as shown in a late pre-dynastic knife handle that is now in the Metropolitan museum, and on the Narmer Macehead.

The earliest evidence known of the Uraeus —a rearing cobra—is from the reign of Den from the first dynasty. The cobra supposedly protected the king by spitting fire at its enemies. The red crown of Lower Egypt, the Deshret crown, dates back to pre-dynastic times and symbolised chief ruler. A red crown has been found on a pottery shard from Naqada , and later, Narmer is shown wearing the red crown on both the Narmer Macehead and the Narmer Palette.

This is the combination of the Deshret and Hedjet crowns into a double crown, called the Pschent crown. It is first documented in the middle of the First Dynasty of Egypt. The earliest depiction may date to the reign of Djet , and is otherwise surely attested during the reign of Den. The khat headdress consists of a kind of "kerchief" whose end is tied similarly to a ponytail.

The earliest depictions of the khat headdress comes from the reign of Den , but is not found again until the reign of Djoser. The Nemes headdress dates from the time of Djoser. It is the most common type of royal headgear depicted throughout Pharaonic Egypt. Any other type of crown, apart from the Khat headdress, has been commonly depicted on top of the Nemes.

The statue from his Serdab in Saqqara shows the king wearing the nemes headdress. Osiris is shown to wear the Atef crown, which is an elaborate Hedjet with feathers and disks. Depictions of kings wearing the Atef crown originate from the Old Kingdom. The Hemhem crown is usually depicted on top of Nemes , Pschent , or Deshret crowns.

It is an ornate, triple Atef with corkscrew sheep horns and usually two uraei. Also called the blue crown, the Khepresh crown has been depicted in art since the New Kingdom. It is often depicted being worn in battle, but it was also frequently worn during ceremonies. It used to be called a war crown by many, but modern historians refrain from defining it thus.

Egyptologist Bob Brier has noted that despite their widespread depiction in royal portraits, no ancient Egyptian crown has ever been discovered.

Ancient egypt pharaoh biography

The tomb of Tutankhamun that was discovered largely intact, contained such royal regalia as a crook and flail , but no crown was found among his funerary equipment. Diadems have been discovered. Brier's speculation is that crowns were religious or state items, so a dead king likely could not retain a crown as a personal possession. The crowns may have been passed along to the successor, much as the crowns of modern monarchies.

During the Early Dynastic Period kings had three titles. The Horus name is the oldest and dates to the late pre-dynastic period. The Nesu Bity name was added during the First Dynasty. The throne of Egypt was primarily intended to be succeeded from father to son, however in many cases this line of kingship was interrupted by murder, mayhem and mysterious disappearances.

Pharaohs were the god kings of ancient Egypt who ruled between B. Each time a new family took control of the throne, a new kingdom began in the history of this fascinating nation. While rulers often intermarried with daughters, granddaughters, sisters and brothers to keep the throne within the family the throne still managed to shift hands multiple times; creating a dynamic and complex pharonic history.

Scholars also include a Dynasty 0 but any kings from this period are not well represented in the archaeological record. Some Dynasties ruled at the same time in different areas of Egypt during the intermediate periods. Click here for a list of the 25 most famous pharaohs of ancient Egypt. The crown prince began training to become the pharaoh as a young child through a series of lessons.

Many of these lessons focused on building physical strength because the pharaoh often fought at the head of his army. Princes went to the royal stables where they learned how to ride and break wild horses. They also ran long foot races to build endurance and went on hunting and fishing expeditions. Inheritance of the throne usually passed from a father to his eldest son but there were exceptions.

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