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Thutmose III's name in hieroglyphs: his cartouches, sign by sign
13 October 2026
Thutmose III wrote his name in two cartouches. The throne name, Menkheperre, is a sun disc, a game board, a ripple of water and a scarab beetle. The birth name, Thutmose, is an ibis on a standard, three fox skins tied together and a folded cloth: "Thoth is born".
He ruled Egypt for about 54 years, roughly 1479 to 1425 BC, the first two decades beside his stepmother Hatshepsut. When people find his name on a scarab, an obelisk or a temple wall, it is almost always the first cartouche, Menkheperre.
Menkheperre takes four signs
The throne name is mn-ḫpr-rꜥ, said "men-kheper-ra". The sun disc (N5) for the god Ra sits at the top of the oval out of respect but is read last. Below it the game board (Y5) writes mn, "men", to remain or endure. The ripple of water (N35) adds its n as a reading aid.
The scarab beetle (L1) writes ḫpr, "kheper": to come into being, a form or manifestation. The site translates the whole name as "Lasting is the form of Ra". Other books give "Lasting is the manifestation of Ra".
Thoth's ibis opens the birth name
The birth name is ḏḥwty-ms, said "djehuty-mes". The ibis on a standard (G26) is Thoth, god of writing and the moon. The three fox skins tied at the top (F31) write ms, "to be born", and the folded cloth (S29) adds s to spell it out. Thutmose is the Greek-based form. Tuthmosis is another.
Thutmose I and Thutmose II had the same birth name before him, so his cartouche often adds an epithet to tell them apart. A common one is nfr-ḫprw, "neferkheperu", "beautiful of forms", with the heart and windpipe (F35) for nfr and the scarab again for ḫpr. The numeral III is modern: Egyptians told kings apart by their throne names.
He waited two decades to rule alone
He was a child when his father Thutmose II died. Hatshepsut acted for him, then had herself crowned. His years were counted from his accession all along, so his first campaign as sole ruler came in his year 22, soon after her death. Its battle at Megiddo, in year 23, is told at length in his annals on the walls of Karnak.
Between 16 and 20 campaigns followed, depending on how they are counted. Late in his reign, around his years 46 and 47, Hatshepsut's names were cut from many monuments. Many scholars now link this to securing the throne for his son Amenhotep II, since it came two decades after her death.
Scarabs with the name Menkheperre kept being made long after his death: the Metropolitan Museum has a faience one from the 19th or 20th Dynasty, a hundred years or more later, worn as a charm.
His names stand from Karnak to New York
At Karnak his festival hall, the Akh-menu, repeats Menkheperre in its halls, and the annals of his campaigns are carved nearby. His tomb in the Valley of the Kings, KV34, has the full Amduat, the book of the night hours, drawn in thin cursive hieroglyphs on its walls. At Deir el-Bahari he offers beside Hatshepsut's erased figures, and at Medinet Habu the two of them built a small temple of Amun. The Luxor Museum has his cartouches at arm's length, and his mummy lies in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo.
Abroad, the Lateran obelisk in Rome was made at Karnak for him and raised only under Thutmose IV. The Louvre has the Chamber of Ancestors from Karnak, where he stands before rows of earlier kings' cartouches. Turin's Museo Egizio rebuilt his rock temple of Ellesyia from Nubia. In London and New York, the two obelisks called Cleopatra's Needles were inscribed for him at Heliopolis, with lines added by Ramesses II.
Menkheperre is the cartouche to draw first
Start with Menkheperre. Put the sun at the top of the oval, the game board under it as a long flat rectangle with pegs on top, the ripple of water as a zigzag line, and the scarab last, legs out to the sides.
Then the birth name: the ibis perched on its standard, the fox skins hanging from a knot, the folded cloth. Many scarab seals squeeze Menkheperre into a single oval with only these four signs.
Questions
What does Thutmose III's name mean in hieroglyphs?
Thutmose means "Thoth is born", after the ibis god of writing. His throne name Menkheperre means "Lasting is the form of Ra".
Why is a scarab beetle in Thutmose III's cartouche?
The beetle sign is read ḫpr, "to come into being". It writes that word in Menkheperre.
Why is Thutmose III called the Napoleon of Egypt?
The Egyptologist James Henry Breasted used the phrase for his string of campaigns into the Levant and Nubia. Historians still quote it.
Glossary
- birth name
- The name a king was given at birth, written in the second cartouche after the title "son of Ra". Egyptologists also call it the nomen.
- cartouche
- An oval ring drawn around a royal name, a loop of rope tied at one end. Kings wrote their two main names in cartouches.
- dynasty
- A line of kings counted together, usually one family. Egyptologists number Egypt's kings in about 30 dynasties, following the priest Manetho.
- epithet
- A title or phrase added to a name, such as "beloved of Amun" after a king's name or "true of voice" after the name of someone who has died.
- hieroglyphs
- The picture signs of ancient Egyptian writing, used from about 3200 BC to AD 394. A sign can stand for sounds, for a whole word, or for the kind of thing a word means.
- mummy
- A body dried and wrapped in linen so that it would last. Egyptians believed the spirit needed it in the afterlife.
- obelisk
- A tall, four-sided stone pillar with a pointed top, usually set up in pairs before a temple and carved with the king's names.
- scarab
- The dung beetle, sign of the rising sun and of the word ḫpr, "to come into being". Carved scarabs were used as seals and amulets.
- temple
- The house of a god, where priests served the god's statue. Temples for dead kings kept up their offerings after death.
- throne name
- The name a king took when he came to the throne, written in the first cartouche after the title "King of Upper and Lower Egypt". Egyptologists also call it the prenomen.
- tomb
- A burial place: a pit, a mastaba, a pyramid or rooms cut into rock. Its chapel was where the family brought offerings.
- Valley of the Kings
- A desert valley on the west bank at Luxor where the New Kingdom kings were buried in tombs cut into the rock, Tutankhamun among them.
People in this article
Where to see it
- Karnak Temple site
- Valley of the Kings site
- Tomb of Thutmose III (KV34) monument
- Temple of Hatshepsut (Deir el-Bahari) site
- Medinet Habu site
- Luxor Museum museum
- National Museum of Egyptian Civilization museum
- Egyptian obelisks of Rome site
- Louvre, Paris museum
- Museo Egizio, Turin museum
Sources
More to read
- Seti I's name in hieroglyphs: his cartouche read sign by sign Seti I's cartouche in hieroglyphics: the throne name Menmaatre and the birth name Seti Merenptah read sign by sign, and where in Egypt to see them.
- Sneferu in hieroglyphs: King Sneferu's name, cartouche and pyramids Sneferu's name in hieroglyphics: his cartouche read sign by sign, what the name means, one of the first cartouches, and where to see it at Dahshur.
- Neferure: Hatshepsut's daughter and her name in hieroglyphs Who was Neferure, the daughter of Hatshepsut? Her name Neferure, "Beauty of Ra", read sign by sign, her titles, her tutor Senenmut and where to see her.