Thutmose's reign is a period of great…

The annals of Thutmose III describe the coastal plain of Lebanon, called Djahy, as rich with fruit, wine, and grain.

The chief cities of Phoenicia (excluding colonies) are Tyre, Sidon, and …

…Berot, or Berytus (modern Beirut).

Ports on the Phoenician coast are converted into Egyptian supply bases, and Kadesh and other cities in the Beqaa (al-Biqa') Valley are taken in subsequent campaigns of Thutmose, which are less fully described in his annals.

The reign of Hittite king Tudhaliya, who may have been the grandson of the Middle Kingdom ruler Huzziya II, or the direct successor of Muwatalli I, having overthrown him, inaugurates the Hittite empire (New kingdom) in 1430 BCE.

Shaushtatar is the son of Parshatatar.

By the time he ascends the throne at some time in the fifteenth century BCE, his father has installed Hurrian client kings in a number of cities, making it easier for Shaushtatar to make Mittani a Mesopotamian power.

Now freed from the constant threat undergone by Mitanni of the Egyptians, Shaushtatar turns his attention toward Assyria.

In a treaty made more than a century later, Shaushtatar is told to have sacked Assur, the Assyrian capital.

He is reputed to have brought the golden doors of the palace to his own capital of Washshukanni, making vassal states of Assyria and Arrapha.

After his invasion of Assyria, Shaushtatar turns his army westward across the Euphrates, along the way gathering beneath his sway all the northern Syrian states as he brings his army to the Mediterranean coast.

He is looking to extend Mitanni's power further south, perhaps into Palestine.

However, much of southern Syria still lies within the Egyptian sphere of influence, which has long been a threat to Mitanni.

The Kassite dynasty of Babylonia reorients their temples to face east and adds sculpture in molded bricks, as, for example, in Uruk’s Temple of Karaindash, constructed between about 1440 and 1420 and dedicated to the mother goddess Innana.

Tudhaliya temporarily opens the southeastern routes to Syria by defeating Aleppo and halting the expansion of the Hurrian state of Mitanni.

He also campaigns against enemies in the Anatolian west and southwest in an attempt to reconquer previously held territories, but with only temporary success.

The Mitanni nation has grown stronger during the reign of Shaushtatar but the Hurrians are keen to keep the Hittites inside the Anatolian highland.

Kizzuwatna in the west and Ishuwa in the north are important allies against the hostile Hittites.

There is a consequence into Shaushtatar's expansion into Palestine: war with Egypt.

Despite Mitanni's advantage that Palestine has a significant Hurrian population at this time, the war will be difficult to win.

During the planning stages, however, Shaushtatar dies, and his son Artatama I negotiates with the pharaoh Amenhotep II over an alliance.

Thutmose III has expanded and consolidated Egyptian control over an empire of unprecedented size in Africa and western Asia.

He has established an efficient administration in the conquered territories, in which vassal kings and chiefs are required to pay heavy tribute to the pharaoh’s viceroys and send their successors to be raised in Egypt.

Thutmose’s son succeeds him in about 1425, after a twenty-eight month co-regency, as Amenhotep II.

Thutmose III had devoted so much energy to expanding Karnak that Amenhotep's building projects are largely focused on enlarging smaller temples all over Egypt.

He begins construction at Luxor in 1417 BCE on the second great Theban temple complex, built, like the temple at Karnak, on the east side of the Nile.

Contemporary Egyptians know Luxor as Waset, or No, meaning "the city."