The pharaoh Akhenaten was the first recorded person in history to start a new religion by himself, establishing monotheistic worship of the sun disc Aten and suppressing the traditional Egyptian pantheon.

137:06army ahead of him! They had no casualties, nor did anyone blame his fellow, nor did their hearts weep! I moored on home soil during the season of inundation; the riverbank was resplendent! Thebes was festive; women and men had come to see me, every woman hugged her neighbor, no one was tearful. His son Ahmose would press this advantage, and in an even more devastating campaign, seized the ancient capital of Memphis.

137:42Ahmose would be the first pharaoh in at least a hundred years to recapture the great pyramids of Giza, and we can imagine imagine his feelings as he gazed up at the monuments of his ancestors Khufu and Khafre, by now already more than a thousand years old. It's clear that the site inspired him, and he would even build a pyramid of his own in Upper Egypt at the site of

138:08Abydos. This was one of the first pyramids built for an Egyptian pharaoh since the fall of the Middle Kingdom, and it was clearly designed as a symbol of renewal of the empire's great legacy. But it would also be the last ever pyramid built by an Egyptian ruler. After securing the Nile Delta, Ahmose marched north and even crossed the Sinai, smashing through the traditional heartland of the Hyksos people, and seizing territory in Palestine in the region of

138:41modern Gaza. After that, he returned to the southern people of Kush, and pushed the empire's borders farther south than they had ever been, beyond the second cataract to the river island of Sai, now in northern Sudan. From its lowest ebb, Egypt had suddenly reemerged as a major regional power. This was the age of the New Kingdom. During the five centuries of the New Kingdom, Egypt would reach its greatest