TIIOTIIMES III was one of the greatest of all the Egyptian monarchs. The evidence as to his parentage is not altogether clear, but in all probability he was the son of Thothmes II. by a wife named Jset, and the nephew of the great Queen Hatshepset (Hatasu). He was a mere child when he succeeded his father about B.C. 1533, and he reigned for nearly 54 years. For more than 21 years he was eoregent with his aunt Hatshepset, who seems to have allowed him merely a nominal share in the government. As soon as her death left him sole ruler (about B.C. 1516) lie entered upon a career of conquest unrivaled in the annals of Egyptian history. Assembling an army for the invasion of Syria, lie celebrated the twenty-third anniversary of his accession at Gaza. thence through the passes of Mount Carmel, he signally defeated the allied Syrian forces on the plain of Esdraelon and forced them to take refuge in the city of Megiddo, which capitulated after a brief siege. The captive Syrian chiefs were restored to their dignities as vassals of Egypt, and Thothmes, after receiving messages of congratulation from a number of foreign princes, among them the King of Assyria, returned home laden with booty. The conquest was, however, not yet com plete. Some of the Syrian and Phrenician cities offered a stubborn resistance and there were frequent revolts, the opponents of Egypt being encouraged and supported by the powerful State of Mitanni (see AMARNA LETTERS) , which at that time occupied Northern Syria and North ern Mesopotamia. A war with this State soon followed, in the course of which Thothmes rav aged the Mitannian territory and captured a number of cities, including the important city of Carc•hemish, on the Euphrates. He gained
no permanent possessions in this quarter, but the result of the war enabled him to extend his do minions, undisturbed by Mitannian interference, over Northern Palestine and Phcenicia. At the city of .Ni, near the Lower Orontes, lie set up a stele to mark the limit of the Egyptian Empire in that quarter. In the course of his reign Thothines conducted at least fourteen Asiatic campaigns, and ihn large booty and tribute he obtained were lavished freely upon the Egyptian temples. In the 50th year of his reign lie caused the old canal at the first cataract of the Nile to be cleared and sailed through it on an expedition against the Nubians. As a builder Thothmes was hardly less energetic than as a warrior, and his monuments occur throughont Egypt and Nubia. He made important additions to the great Temple of Ammon at Karnak and caused the annals of his reign to be inscribed upon its walls, and he also bnilt, at Heliopolis, Memphis, Abydos, Hermonthis, Edfu. Esneh, Ombos, and other places. In Nubia, where he built or re stored many temples, he was the founder of the large temple at Soleb, near the third cataract. Of the numerous obelisks erected by him, one is now on the hill of the Lateran at Rome; another is in Constantinople; a third stands on the Thames embankment in London; and a fourth is in Central Park, New York. (See OBELISK.) Thothmes III. died about B.C. 1485; his mummy was among those found at Deir el-Hahn in 1881.