The New Kingdom of Egypt, also referred to as the Egyptian Empire, is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the 16th and 11th centuries B.C. It was Egypt’s most prosperous time and marked the peak of its power. This period of Egypt's history contains some of its most famous pharaohs, including Ahmose I (considered the first Pharaoh), Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Amenhotep III, Akhenaten and Tutankhamun. Queen Hatshepsut concentrated on expanding Egypt's external trade by sending a commercial expedition to the land of Punt. Thutmose III (known as 'the Napoleon of Egypt') expanded Egypt's army and wielded it with great success to consolidate the empire created by his predecessors. This resulted in a peak in Egypt's power and wealth during the reign of Amenhotep III. Babylon was the Empire that broke the power of Assyria, and, in its westward sweep, destroyed Judah and conquered Egypt. Babylonia emerged as a powerful nation when the Amorite king Hammurabi created a short lived empire out of the territories of the former Akkadian Empire. The empire lasted from 612 B.C. to 536 B.C. Cyrus, king of Persia, conquered Babylon in 539 B.C. The Mitanni empire was a loosely organized Hurrian-speaking state. Mitanni came to be a regional power after the Hittite destruction of Kassite Babylon. At the beginning of its history Mitanni's major rival was Egypt. However, with the ascent of the Hittite empire, Mitanni and Egypt made an alliance to protect their mutual interests from the threat of Hittite domination. At the height of its power, the Mitanni empire had outposts centered around its capital, Washukanni. Eventually, the empire succumbed to Hittite and later Assyrian attacks. The Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia. The Hittite empire reached its height around the 14th century B.C., in part due to the Hittite military's successful use of chariots. Civil war and rivaling claims to the throne, combined with the external threat of a confederacy of seafaring raiders, eventually weakened the Hittites and by 1160 B.C. the Empire had collapsed. Assyria was founded by colonists from Babylon and for many centuries was subject to, or in conflict with, Babylon. Assyria was a world empire from around 884 B.C. to the fall of its capital Nineveh in 612 B.C. | 
