Tristan Hughes

So we're going back more than a century before Ramesses' reign.

And the 18th dynasty, it is full of these incredible large-than-life figures, isn't it?

Tutankhamun, Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, Akhenaten.

I mean, paint us a picture of the 18th dynasty, quick.

The whole dynasty, it's a time of kind of wealthy art and architecture, amazing structures like the obelisks, warrior kings, but also powerful queens as well like at Shepset.

So as you mentioned right at the start, this actually feels like the real zenith of ancient Egypt rather than the 19th dynasty that follows.

Exactly.

So this almost steady decline of the 18th dynasty following Thutmose III, isn't it, that we're going to explore.

And you mentioned source material there, like you had those letters in cuneiform.

Do we have quite a rich array of source material for learning about the 18th dynasty and the latter half of the 18th dynasty as we get to the

to the rise ultimately of the House of Remeses.

So if we have, let's say, Egypt at its height under Thutmose III ruling an empire at that time, I mean, how big an empire should we be thinking of?

And I want to ask that question first of all, because if we then fast forward to, let's say, the reign of Akhenaten, so we can get a real sense of how that empire is already transforming by that pharaoh by the time of Akhenaten and Hotep IV.

And so that's at its height.

I mean, so how does it decline by the time we get to Akhenaten?

A few decades, is it quite a few decades later, isn't it?

That's interesting.

So do you therefore see, as those decades go on in the 18th dynasty, do you see those new powers like the Hittites, like the Assyrians, becoming more prominent?

And Egypt, in contrast, these rulers become a bit more obsessed with their luxuries, this idea of decadence and so on.

And so Egyptian power on the