Editing Thutmose I (section)

==== Campaign in the Levant and Syria ====
Thutmose's Tombos stele indicates that he had already fought a campaign in Syria; hence, his Syrian campaign may be placed at the beginning of his second regnal year.<ref name="Steindorff 35">Steindorff and Seele (1942) p.35</ref> This second campaign was the farthest north any Egyptian ruler had ever campaigned. 

Although it has not been found in modern times, he apparently set up a stele when he crossed the [[Euphrates]] River.<ref name="Shaw 289">Shaw and Nicholson (1995) p.289</ref> During this campaign, the Syrian princes declared allegiance to Thutmose. But after he returned, they discontinued tribute and began fortifying against future incursions.<ref name="Steindorff 36"/> Thutmose celebrated his victories with an elephant hunt in the area of [[Niya (kingdom)|Niy]], near Apamea in Syria,<ref name="Gardiner 179"/> and returned to Egypt with strange tales of the Euphrates, "that inverted water which flows upstream when it ought to be flowing downstream."<ref name="Steindorff 36"/> The Euphrates was the first major river the Egyptians had ever encountered that flowed from the north, which was downstream on the [[River Nile|Nile]], to the south, upstream on the Nile. Thus the river became known in Egypt as simply "inverted water."<ref name="Steindorff 36"/>

Textual sources from the time of Thutmose I include references to [[Retenu]], [[Naharin]], and the 'land of [[Mitanni]]'. The last is believed to be the first historical reference to that kingdom.<ref name=Weinstein1981>{{cite journal |last1=Weinstein |first1=James M. |title=The Egyptian Empire in Palestine: A Reassessment |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |date=1981 |issue=241 |pages=1–28 |doi=10.2307/1356708 |jstor=1356708 |s2cid=164015977 }}</ref>

Many Levantine sites were destroyed in the middle of the 16th century B.C., and these destructions have often been attributed to the military campaigns of Thutmose I, or of his predecessor [[Amenhotep I]]. Initially these campaigns may have aimed at defeating the power of the [[Hyksos]], who were formerly strong in this area.<ref name=Weinstein1981/>[[File:Account of a Campaign of Thutmose I MET LC-66 57 EGDP029618.jpg|thumb|Account of a Campaign of Thutmose I]]As many as 20 sites in the Levant suffered destruction at this time. For example, the fiery destruction of Stratum XVIII at [[Gezer]] has been assigned to the second half of the 16th century BCE, the time of Amenhotep I and Thutmose I, based on the pottery and scarabs discovered in the destruction debris.<ref name="Weinstein1981" />

It does not appear that the Egyptians' aim at this stage was to control the area permanently, because they established no permanent presence in the area. This happened later, during the 18th dynasty.<ref name="Weinstein1981" />