Egypt's Kings or Rulers: Necho II / Nekau II, King of 26th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt

Necho II

A small kneeling bronze statuette, likely king Necho II, now residing in the Brooklyn Museum.

Necho II (sometimes Nekau) was a king of the Twenty-Sixth dynasty of Egypt (610 BC - 595 BC), and the son of Psamtik I by his Great Royal Wife Mehtenweskhet. His prenomen or royal name Wahemibre means "Carrying out the Wish of Re Forever." Necho played a significant role in the histories of the Assyrian Empire, Babylonia and the Kingdom of Judah. The Egyptologist Donald B. Redford observed that although he was "a man of action from the start, and endowed with an imagination perhaps beyond that of his contemporaries, Necho had the misfortune to foster the impression of being a failure." Yet, he penetrated deeper into Asia than any other pharaoh before or after him.

He came to the throne, succeeding his father, Psammetichus I in about 610 BC., and probably ruled Egypt until about 595 BC. He continued the foreign involvement of his father, and Palestine once more became an Egyptian possession. In fact, much of Egypt's involvement in that area is found in the Biblical account of the Book of Kings.

Initially things went well for King Necho II and we find the Egyptian forces campaigning east of the Euphrates river against the Chaldaeans, defeating Josiah of Judah in 609 BC. at Harran. This allowed the Egyptians to establish themselves on the Euphrates for a short while, though apparently the Egyptians did not end up controlling that city. He then intervened in the kingdom of Israel and deposed Josiah's son Jehoahaz, replacing him with his brother Eliakim (Jehoiakim (II Kings 23: 29-35). Afterwards, we are told that Jerusalem paid tribute to Egypt. He also ruled Syria at least as for as Carchemish.

But this position was also soon lost, when in 605 BC, the king suffered a catastrophic loss. The son of the Babylonian king, Nabopolassar was sent to deal with Syria. This was Nebuchadrezzar, and he captured Carchemish from the Egyptians, and then pursued the fleeing army as far as Hamath, where he apparently overwhelmed them. Hence, this was followed by a retreat to by the Egyptians to their eastern frontier at Gaza.

King Necho II is known to have been responsible for monuments honoring the Apris Bull in Memphis. We also find inscriptional evidence of the king in the quarries of the Mokattam Hills.

But in many ways, Necho was a very foresighted individual who's vision included a "Suez Canal" almost 2,500 years prior to the modern construct. He had a navigable canal dug, using some 12,000 workers, through the Wadi Tumilat between the Pelusiac branch of the Nile (where the great frontier fortress of Pelusium was located) and the Red Sea. He caused a great port city, Per-Temu-Tjeku ("the House of Atum of Tjeku", modern Tell el-Mashkuta) west of modern Ismailia to be built on the canal, and like Suez later, its fortunes were inevitably linked with this new waterway. Tradition held that this was the Biblical city of Pithom, but recent excavations have shown this to be incorrect.

At this time, Greece was expanding her trading contacts and Necho took the opportunity to recruit displaced Ionian Greeks to form an Egyptian Navy. This was, militarily, revolutionary, for the Egyptians had an inherent distaste for and fear of the sea. While this new navy was probably not much threat to his rivals, it did lead to other benefits, such as the creation of a new African trade route. He also encouraged some Greek settlement in the Delta.

When Nacho II died in 595 BC., he left behind a son and three daughters. His son, Psamtik II, only ruled for a brief period - 595-589.

Ambitious Projects

At some point during his Syrian campaign, over the next three years, he initiated the ambitious project of cutting a canal from the Pelusiac branch of the Nile to the Gulf of Suez, the earliest precursor of the Suez Canal. Some 12,000 workers dug in the Wadi Tumilat to make the waterway, who were housed at Per-Temu Tjeku (Tell el-Maskhuta), about 15 km west of Ismailia. The waterway was intended to facilitate trade between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean, and allow the Egyptian navy he created to operate along both the Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts. Herodotus however, declares that Necho discontinued work on this canal after 120,000 Egyptians had perished during the construction effort. Herodotus states that the canal was completed by the Persian, Darius the Great, a century later.

Herodotus (4.42) also reports that Necho sent out an expedition of Phoenicians, who in three years sailed from the Red Sea around Africa back to the mouth of the Nile. Many current historians tend to believe Herodotus' account, primarily because he stated with disbelief that the Phoenicians had the sun on their right hand all the time -- in Herodotus' time it was not known that Africa extended south past the equator. However, Egyptologists also point out that it would have been extremely unusual for an Egyptian Pharoah to carry out such an expedition. For instance, Alan Lloyd wrote "Given the context of Egyptian thought, economic life, and military interests, it is impossible for one to imagine what stimulus could have motivated Necho in such a scheme and if we cannot provide a reason which is sound within Egyptian terms of reference, then we have good reason to doubt the historicity of the entire episode."

King Necho II's First Campaign

In the spring of 609 BC, Necho personally led a sizable force to help the Assyrians. At the head of a large army, consisting mainly of his mercenaries, Necho took the coast route Via Maris into Syria, supported by his Mediterranean fleet along the shore, and proceeding through the low tracts of Philistia and Sharon. He prepared to cross the ridge of hills which shuts in on the south the great Jezreel Valley, but here he found his passage blocked by the Jewish army. Their king, Josiah, sided with the Babylonians and attempted to block his advance at Megiddo, where a fierce battle was fought and Josiah was killed (2 Kings 23:29, 2 Chronicles 35:20-24).

Herodotus reports the campaign of the pharaoh in his Histories:

"Necos, then, stopped work on the canal and turned to war; some of his triremes were constructed by the northern sea, and some in the Arabian Gulf, by the coast of the Sea of Erythrias. The windlasses for beaching the ships can still be seen. He deployed these ships as needed, while he also engaged in a pitched battle at Magdolos with the Syrians, and conquered them; and after this he took Cadytis, which is a great city of Syria. He sent the clothes he had worn in these battles to Branchidae of Miletus and dedicated them to Apollo."

Necho soon captured Kadesh on the Orontes and moved forward, joining forces with Ashur-uballit and together they crossed the Euphrates and laid siege to Harran. Although Necho became the first pharaoh to cross the Euphrates since Thutmose III, he failed to capture Harran, and retreated back to northern Syria. At this point Ashur-uballit vanishes from history, and the Assyrian Empire collapsed.

Leaving a sizable force behind, Necho returned to Egypt. On his return march, he found that the Judeans had selected Jehoahaz to succeed his father Josiah, whom Necho deposed and replaced with Jehoiakim. He brought Jehoahaz back to Egypt as his prisoner, where Jehoahaz ended his days (2 Kings 23:31; 2 Chronicles 36:1-4).

Second Campaign

Meanwhile, the Babylonian king was planning on reasserting his power in Syria. In 609 BC, King Nabopolassar captured Kumukh, which cut off the Egyptian army, then based at Carchemish. Necho responded the following year by retaking Kumukh after a four month siege, and executed the Babylonian garrison. Nabopolassar brought forth another army, which he encamped at Qurumati on the Euphrates, but his health forced him to return to Babylon in January of 605 BC; the Egyptians sallied forth in 606 BC and attacked the leaderless Babylonians (probably then led by the crown prince Nebuchadrezzar) who fled their position.

At this point, the aged Nabopolassar, passed command of the army to his son Nebuchadrezzar II, who led them to a decisive victory over the Egyptians at Carchemish, and pursued the fleeing survivors to Hamath. Necho's dream of restoring the Egyptian Empire in Asia that had occurred under the New Kingdom was destroyed as Nebuchadrezzar conquered their territory from the Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt (Jeremiah 46:2; 2 Kings 23:29) down to Judea. Although Nebuchadrezzar spent many years in his new conquests on continuous pacification campaigns, Necho was offered no opportunity to recover any significant part of his lost territories: when Ashkalon rose in revolt; despite repeated pleas the Egyptians sent no help, and were barely able to repel a Babylonian attack on their eastern border in 601 BC. When he repelled the attack, Necho managed to capture Gaza while pursuing the enemy. Necho turned his attention in his remaining years to forging up relationships with new allies: the Carians, and further to the west, the Greeks.

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