The Founder and the royal family:

Ahmose was the founder of the 18th dynasty. He was the brother of Kamose, the last ruler of the Seventeenth Dynasty.

History:

The Eighteenth Dynasty is perhaps the most famous among all the dynasties of ancient Egypt. It included Tutankhamen, whose relatively undisturbed tomb was one of the greatest of all archaeological discoveries, Akhenaton, widely held to have promoted one of the first expressions of monotheism, possibly second only to that of China, as well as a number of Egypt's most powerful pharaohs. Although modern students of Egyptology consider the monotheism of Akhenaton the most important event of this period, this period was believed to be when the Hebrew were kept as slaves in Egypt, though this theory is widely debated by Egyptologists.

Ahmose, the founder of this dynasty finished the campaign to cat out the hated Hyksos rulers. By the beginning of this dynasty, the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt ended, and the New Kingdom of Egypt or the Egyptian Empire began.

Highlights of this dynasty include: Queen Hatshepsut, who effectively ruled during the minority of her step-son, but was later considered a usurper; the first formal relations with foreign countries under Amenhotep III, of which some records were included in the el Amarna letters; Akhenaton (Amenhotep IV), whose religion offended many in power. Scholars believed that Akhenaton caused a great deal of antipathy by his devotion to his God Aten, which contributed to the end of this dynasty and it was called Atonism.

After the death of Akhenaton, king Tutankhamen was the only who could be the ruler in spite of his young age. Tutankhamen died at the age of 20 years, and was buried in a tomb in the valley of the kings which was normally belongs to king Ay, who was most probably the co-regent with king Tutankhamen during his reign.

Famous kings:

- Ahmose

- Amonhotep

- Tuthmosis I

- Tuthmosis II

- Hatshepsut

- Tuthmosis III

- Amonhotep II

- Tuthmosis III

- Tuthmosis IV

- Amonhotep III

- Amonhotep IV

- Tutankhamon

- Ay

- Hormoheb

Famous monuments:

- The valley of the kings

- Hatshepsut temple

- Collection of king Tutankhamon in the Egyptian museum .