Thutmose II - Definition and Overview

Akheperenre Thutmose II ( ? -1479 BC; sometimes spelled Thutmosis) was the fourth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. He ruled from 1492 BC to 1479 BC.

Thutmose II was the son of Thutmose the I and a minor wife, Mutnofret. Thutmose was not fully royal and he married his fully royal half-sister, Hatshepsut, to secure his rule. He successfully put down rebellions in Nubia and the Levant and defeated a group of nomadic Bedouins. Thutmose II had two daughters with Hatshepsut, Nefrure and Meritre, but managed to father a male heir, Thutmose III, by a lesser wife named Isis before his death.

Some archaeologists believe that Hatshepsut was the power behind the thrown during Thutmose II’s rule because of similar foreign and domestic policies, her claim that she was her father’s intended heir, and the fact that she had herself crowned Pharaoh after his death.

Thutmose II's body was found in the Deir el-Bahri Cache above the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut and can viewed today in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

See also: List of Pharaohs