ABSTRACT
After defeating the Hyksos and reunifying Egypt around 1540 bce, the Egyptian Eighteenth Dynasty expanded Egyptian power over Nubia to the south and most of the Levant to the northeast. The early Eighteenth Dynasty kings considered Amun their patron and protector, and they repaid him with lavish building projects and massive gifts of land and wealth. Thutmose III's aunt and stepmother, Queen Hatshepsut, became regent for the child-king when his father died. Early in her kingship, Hatshepsut did not try to deny her female gender. Soon after claiming the throne, Hatshepsut began building her mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri in western Thebes. Thutmose III also conducted campaigns in Nubia, pushing Egyptian control southward to Napata and the fourth cataract and continued diplomatic and commercial contacts with Minoan rulers. During the New Kingdom, Egypt and the Levant developed particularly strong connections with the Aegean societies of Cyprus, Crete, and Greece.
