The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt: Nine Profiles That Define Three Millennia

Djoser (also written Netjerikhet) is the Old Kingdom's first fully documented ruler, known from detailed inscriptions, statues and above all his mortuary complex at Saqqara. His step pyramid — six terraced mastaba platforms stacked to a height of 62 metres — is the world's first large-scale stone building and the first pyramid in Egypt. It was designed by Imhotep, his chief minister and architect, who was later deified as a god of healing and wisdom (the Greeks identified him with Asclepius). The surrounding funerary complex of white limestone enclosures, dummy shrines, courts and storage chambers covers 15 hectares and represents an entirely new concept: a permanent royal city in stone rather than mud brick.

The construction involved working out for the first time how to quarry, transport, dress and stack limestone blocks at scale — a set of engineering problems solved by a workforce of skilled craftsmen and permanent labourers rather than the seasonal pyramid gangs of popular imagination. Graffiti left by the workers and administrative records found at the site name work gangs, overseers and supply chains. Djoser's own statue — the oldest life-size stone statue of an Egyptian king — was found in a sealed chamber (serdab) beside the pyramid, its eyes level with peepholes so the statue could "see" out into the courtyard. Djoser's reign and the step pyramid complex mark the moment Egyptian civilisation committed to stone as its medium of eternity. For a fuller sense of the dynasty in which he ruled, see the dynasties page.

Hatshepsut was the daughter of Thutmose I, wife of Thutmose II, and upon his death in 1479 BCE became regent for her young stepson Thutmose III. Within a few years she claimed full pharaonic title, depicted herself in statuary with a king's beard and royal kilt, and ruled Egypt for approximately 22 years as effective pharaoh while Thutmose III received a military education. The two appear to have co-existed without violent conflict — the later erasure of her name and images from monuments was carried out by Thutmose III's son Amenhotep II decades after her death, for reasons that remain debated.

Hatshepsut's reign was a period of prosperity, marked by large-scale building and long-distance trade rather than conquest. Her mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahari — three colonnaded terraces set against the limestone cliffs of the Theban west bank — is among the finest examples of Egyptian architecture and still substantially standing. Its walls document her most famous achievement: a trading expedition to the land of Punt (probably the Horn of Africa, modern Eritrea or Djibouti), which returned with live myrrh trees, ebony, ivory, gold, animal skins and exotic animals, their import reducing Egypt's dependence on overland trade routes. She erected two enormous obelisks at Karnak, one of which still stands at 29.5 metres. She commissioned the transport of 40-metre obelisks from Aswan to Karnak on boats, recorded in relief sculptures that constitute one of the best ancient records of large-scale logistics. Her chief steward Senenmut was the architect of Deir el-Bahari and her closest adviser; the precise nature of their relationship is a long-standing scholarly discussion. Hatshepsut died around 1458 BCE; the cause is unknown. For the political context of Dynasty 18, see the dynasties guide.

Akhenaten began his reign as Amenhotep IV and in his fifth year initiated one of the most radical religious reforms in ancient history: he elevated the Aten — the physical disc of the sun — to the status of sole god, demoted all other deities, closed the temples of Amun at Karnak, diverted their enormous revenues to the Aten cult, and moved the capital from Thebes to a new city he built on a virgin site in Middle Egypt, named Akhetaten (modern Amarna). He changed his own name from Amenhotep ("Amun is satisfied") to Akhenaten ("effective spirit of the Aten") and portrayed himself and his wife Nefertiti as the sole intermediaries between humanity and the Aten — a theological claim with no precedent in 1,500 years of Egyptian religion.

The Amarna period (roughly 1353–1332 BCE) produced a distinctive art style: elongated skulls, drooping jaws, wide hips and intimate domestic scenes of the royal family playing with their daughters beneath the rays of the Aten — a radical departure from the hieratic formalism of traditional Egyptian art. The Amarna Letters, a cache of cuneiform tablets found at the site in 1887, preserve diplomatic correspondence with the kingdoms of Babylon, Mitanni, Assyria and the Hittites, showing an Egypt that under Akhenaten was withdrawing from active Levantine diplomacy at a time when its vassals desperately needed military support against Hittite expansion. After Akhenaten's death — the cause and precise date are uncertain — his successor Smenkhkare, then Tutankhamun, gradually reversed his reforms, reopened the temples and eventually erased his name from monuments. He was referred to in later records only as "the criminal of Akhetaten."

Ramesses II ruled for 66 years — from roughly age 25 to age 91 — and in that time built, appropriated, enlarged or inscribed his name on more monuments than any other pharaoh. He raised two enormous temples at Abu Simbel in Nubia, carved directly into the sandstone cliff face: the Great Temple, fronted by four 20-metre seated colossi of himself, and the smaller temple dedicated to his chief wife Nefertari. He built the Ramesseum — his mortuary temple at Thebes, whose fallen colossus inspired Shelley's "Ozymandias." He completed the hypostyle hall at Karnak (134 columns in 16 rows, the tallest reaching 21 metres), added to Luxor Temple, and founded Pi-Ramesses, a new Delta capital near the modern town of Qantir, whose remains include stables for over 400 horses and extensive military workshops.

Ramesses II's most famous military engagement was the Battle of Kadesh (c. 1274 BCE) against the Hittite king Muwatalli II — a battle he nearly lost when his forces were surprised and he was temporarily surrounded, but which he turned into a personal triumph in his official records. The subsequent Egyptian-Hittite peace treaty, signed around 1259 BCE, is the oldest surviving international treaty in the world; a copy in cuneiform is displayed at the UN headquarters in New York. Despite the treaty's diplomatic importance, Kadesh was strategically inconclusive; the Hittites retained control of Kadesh and the surrounding territory. Ramesses II lived long enough to outlive twelve of his sons (he had approximately 96 children by eight official wives and multiple secondary wives); his thirteenth son, Merneptah, succeeded him at an advanced age. Ramesses II's mummy, found in the Deir el-Bahari cache in 1881, shows a powerfully built man whose teeth were severely worn and who suffered from arterial disease and arthritis in his later decades. His mummy was flown to Paris in 1974 for conservation, issued an Egyptian passport in which his occupation was listed as "King (deceased)." For daily life in his Ramesside Egypt, see the daily life page.