Egyptian Military Traditions

      By the time of Tuthmosis III, Egypt had earned a well-deserved reputation for having one of the best trained armies in the Near East. Ironically, the Egyptians were actually among the least warlike people of ancient times. The bounty of the Nile Valley provided for their needs, and the deserts on either side served as natural barriers to their enemies. The wealthy of ancient Egypt did, however, attract the attention of greedy neighbors who sought to seize control of the rich and fertile country. The success of the Hyksos invasion alerted the Egyptians to the need for a strong army to defend against future attacks. Fighting abroad was always viewed with anxiety, since nothing was more distressing to an Egyptian than the thought of dying away from home and being buried in a foreign land. Later in the New Kingdom, the powerful army did begin to expand Egypt's boundaries through conquests, but as in the past, mercenaries made up a significant part of the Egyptian army.
      The Egyptian army was a highly trained and disciplined fighting machine. With each military campaign, the Egyptians invoked the power of the goes to ensure their victory. Wars were fought with great pomp and ceremony, with trumpeters leading the army into battle. At the head of the attack was the Pharaoh's chariot, carrying a flag decorated with a ram's head and the sum, symbolic of the god Amon-Re.

Akhenaton's Challenge to Authority

In the midst of unparalleled wealth and power, the Egyptians faced an attempted religious revolution. Amonhotep IV, who changed his name to Akhenaton, concentrated his energies on reforming Egyptian religion. Akhenaton opposed the worhip of Amon-Re, traditionally the supreme god of the Egyptians. In place of Amon-Re, Akhenaton sponsored the worship of Aton. To promote the new cult, he took the name Akhenaton, meaning "he who serves Aton," and built a new capital city called Akhentaton *"Place of the Glory of Aton") far from the major urban centres of Egypt. Akhenton also had the temples of other gods closed and their possessions confiscated. These actions have since caused some to refer to Akhenaton as the first monotheist (believer in one god). This term is somewhat inaccurate since the Egyptian people were still expected to worship the Pharaoh while the royal family worshiped Aton. Akhenaton defined his new religion through hymns, some of which are preserved on the walls of tombs in the city he founded. Here is a sample of Akhenaton's writing:

Splendid you rise in heaven's lightland,

O living Aton, creator of life!

When you have dawned in eastern lightland,

You fill every land with your beauty. 

      Akhenaton's break with Egyptian traditions can also be seen in the art of his reign. Unlike other Pharaohs, who insisted on idealized representations of themselves, Akhenaton is portrayed with all of his human flaws: a slight pot-belly, and an oddly shaped head. There are also depictions of tender moments between Akhenaton and his wife and children -- scenes rare in Egyptian art.
      Akhenaton's preoccupation with reforming Egyptian religion left him little time to govern the empire built by his predecessors. In fact, once his new city was built, Akhenaton vowed never to leave it. In essence, he had refused to fill the traditional role of the Pharaoh -- leading the army into battle or attending to matters of the state that required him to travel outside his new city. By the time of his death the Egyptian empire was crumbling from neglect, and while still a dominant power, Egyptian civilization had begun its long decline.

Tutankhamun

      Tutankhamun came to power as a young child under the name Tutankhaton. It is likely that he was the son of Akhenaton and a minor wife. When Akhenaton died, the only surviving members of the royal family were two children, Tutankhaton and his half-sister Ankhesenpaton. A marriage of the two youngsters was hastily arranged, and the ten-year old Tutankhaton ascended to the throne. 

      It is unclear how big a role Tutankhaton played in the destruction of his father's new religion and the restoration of traditional beliefs. He may have been well aware of the strife that had befallen Egypt and, guided by his advisors, sought to restore stability by halting the religious revolution. He may also have simply accepted the dictates of his advisors, who either for the good of Egypt or for their own personal ambitions, sought to reverse Akhenatons' changes. 

      Within a few years of coming to the throne, Tutankhaton had changed his name to Tutankhamun, signalling a rejection of the cult of Aton and a return to traditional Egyptian religion. He also restored the priests and moved the capital of Egypt back from exile in Akhetaton to Thebes. Tutankhamun's short rule ended suddenly when he died from an apparent blow to the head at the age of eighteen. The sudden and unexpected death of the young Pharaoh created a problem, since the preparationg of a Pharaoh's tomb took many years to complete. Having no competed tomb in which to lay the mummy of Tutankhamun, a nearly completed tomb of a member of the nobility was used instead. This may explain why the tomb of King Tut, as he has come to be known, lay undisturbed until its dramatic discovery in 1922; perhaps grave robbers thought it was not worth the effort.

      Tutankhamun should be remembered as the Pharaoh who restored traditional Egyptian religion. As successor to Akhenaton, it was Tutankhamun and his advisors who destroyed the cult of Aton. He is, however, better known for the unsurpassed wealth found in his tomb. The treasures Howard Carter found in 1922 included gold inlaid furniture, lavish jewelry, and a solid-gold coffin.

Ramses II  

      By the time of Ramses II, 60 years after Tutankhamun, Egypt was in its twilight years. During his 67-year reign, Ramses II constructed more buildings and colossal statues than any other Egyptian king. Among his greatest monuments are the two huge temples at Abu Simbel. In the 1960s, these were the focus of a massive undertaking to save them from being submerged beneath the artificial lake that was created with the construction of the Aswan High Dam. The salvage operation involved dismantling the temple facades by cutting them into huge blocks and moving them 210 m away from the river. The operation took four years and cost $40 million. 

      Not long after the reign of Ramses II, Egypt was invaded and eventually fell under the rule of foreigners. During the next thousand years, Nubians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans would govern the state of Egypt. Despite being subjected to the rule of foreigners, the grandeur of Egypt has never been lost.

Writing: ECHOES from the past. published by McGraw-Hill Ryderson Ltd.