The New Kingdom Period is the one most people recall when they think of Egyptian history. Queen Hatshepsut and her temple, Amenophis III (Amenhotep) and his massive colossi, Akhenaten the heretic, Tutankhamun and his treasures, Seti I and the temple at Abydos, Ramses the Great and the hypostyle hall at Karnak, then Ramses III and his pleasure palace. All are still famous thousands of years after their deaths. Few figures in history will gain the same esteem.

There may have been few large-scale building projects during the Middle Kingdom Period but the building projects of the New Kingdom Period more than made up for it as they were on a gigantic scale. Temples to Amun and Mortuary temples to the Kings proliferated throughout the 18th, 19th and 20th dynasty and spectacular tombs in the Valley of Kings and the Valley of the Queens left Thebes with an unsurpassed legacy.

The New Kingdom was a time of prosperity and growth. Thuthmosis III created an enormous empire, and Egypt entered its most glorious age. Thebes was extremely prosperous with the Temple estates rivalling those of the King. Amun and Osiris ruled the universe. That is until Akhenaten, the heretic king, set up a new capital at Amarna in middle Egypt. Here, along with Queen Nefertiti, he was able to take the Aten religion to new heights, whilst beginning his programme to destroy the Amun priesthood back at Thebes.

During the Third Intermediate and the Late Periods Egypt was conquered by the Kushites, the Libyans, the Abyssinians and the Persians and consequently the whole nature of the country changed as the new cultures were assimilated and various kings ruled different areas. Finally Egypt was conquered by the Macedonian king known as Alexander the Great. Through him and his successors was found peace. The wonderful city of Alexandria was founded which surpassed Athens as the World center of religion and the intellectual world. The Ptolemaic period was to be the last great age of Egyptian religion and civilisation before the Roman conquest.