Four Famous Pharaohs

Profiles of Leadership

What does leadership look like?

• When you think of strong leadership, what characteristics come to mind?

• How about weak leadership?

Hatshepsut• Reign: c. 1479 BCE- 1458 BCE

• Hatshepsut came to the throne as a regent for her stepson, who was too young to rule when her husband died.

• Her reign was peaceful. She focused on building the economy of Egypt and building great buildings instead of going to war.

Hatshepsut

• Hatshepsut built large temples and obelisks that became famous throughout Egypt.

• To portray her power and authority, Hatshepsut had portraits made that showed her as a pharaoh. She even used that title.

Hatshepsut

• Hatshepsut died of unknown causes in c. 1458 BCE.

• Her stepson Thutmose III finally became pharaoh.

• Late in his reign, he worked hard to remove all references of Hatshepsut from all works of art.

Akhenaton• Reigned: 1353–1336 BCE

• Akhenaton was a radical king that made extreme changes to Egypt.

• The priests in Egypt had gained a lot of power.

• To regain control of his land, Akhenaton changed the Egyptian religion.

• He banished the many gods of Egypt’s religion. He only allowed Egyptians to worship one god—the sun.

Akhenaton

• He closed temples and moved the capital of Egypt to Amarna.

• The art work of himself was even different from other Egyptian pharaohs.

• He and his famous wife, Nefertiti, ruled Egypt together.

Akhenaton • Many priests and other people in

power were angry by Akhenaton's changes. When Nefertiti and Akhenaton died, his son restored the old gods to power.

• The names of Akhenaton and Nefertiti became hated and were removed from most inscriptions and their temples were torn down.

Tutankhamen

• Reigned: 1332 BCE - 1323 BCE

• King Tutankhamen was only 8 or 9-years old when he became king of Egypt.

• Most of the decisions made during his early years were made by his advisors because he was so young.

Tutankhamen

• Tutankhamen ruled for about 20 years before dying. Little is known about his life and reign.

• CT scans of his mummy showed that he suffered from many ailments including a club foot and malaria.

• Theories for how he died include: complications due to malaria, a blood infection, or a chariot collision.

Tutankhamen• Tutankhamen is best known for what

happened after his death.

• His tomb is the only tomb found in ancient Egypt that has not been extensively robbed.

• Because his tomb was hidden until its discovery in 1922, it is the only intact example of what a pharaoh's burial looked like.

Tutankhamen

• The discovery (which included gold) was a media sensation that made archaeologist, Howard Carter, famous.

Ramses II

• Reigned: 1279–1213 BCE

• Ramses II is often times referred to as Ramses the Great.

• Ramses ruled Egypt for 67 years.

• He built more statues and monuments than any ruler in ancient Egypt.

Ramses II• Ramses led his armies into war in Syria

against the Hittites (a powerful empire from Anatolia). He also led campaigns south into Nubia.

• After years of bloody conflict, Ramses signed the world’s oldest peace treaty.

• The treaty brought peace to Egypt and kept the empire from further war and prevented a possible invasion.

Ramses II

• From a temple in Luxor, one his defeats was described:

“His majesty slaughtered the armed forces of the Hittites in their entirety, their great rulers and all their brothers ... their infantry and chariot troops fell prostrate, one on top of the other. His majesty killed them ... and they lay stretched out in front of their horses. But his majesty was alone, nobody accompanied him ...”

Ramses II

• Ramses is also known as the pharaoh who ruled Egypt when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt.

• This story is made famous by the Torah.