The first and greatest of the Eighteenth Dynasty warrior pharaohs was Thutmose III who, in a series of six campaigns, subdued the whole of Syria/Palestine from the borders of Egypt to the Euphrates River in northern Syria. This represented a wholly unprecedented programme of expansion on the part of the Egyptians and marked the arrival of Egypt on the world stage. Both Thutmose III and his successors left detailed written and pictorial records of their military achievements, and these represent a first-class source of information with regard to tactics and equipment deployed. What this information tells us, however, is deeply problematic from the point of view of Egyptian history and its relationship to the histories of the other ancient peoples of the Near East as it is currently understood. This is particularly the case with regard to two features of military technology: namely the chariot and cavalry.
Chariotry
The chariot, by general agreement, was introduced into Egypt by the Hyksos. This makes sense, since the chariot was an Asiatic invention – the Sumerians employed the first cumbersome four-wheeled vehicle, which was drawn by asses. It is frequently argued that the horsedrawn chariot (‘markabata’), perhaps derived from the Akkadian . The chariot brought to Egypt by the Hyksos was a light machine, built for speed, whose wheels were fitted with four spokes.
