The Amduat was an Egyptian funerary text that was prominent during the New Kingdom period of ancient Egypt. It tells the story of the journey of Ra through the underworld each night. Many of the surviving pieces of Egyptian literature fall under the category of funerary text.

In the time of the New Kingdom, a new element was added to the Ancient Egyptian canon of temple architecture. This new feature was known as the pylon—two towers linked by a bridge. Not only were pylons dramatic, impressive, and imposing, but they were designed with a vital spiritual purpose in mind. A pylon was the symbolic representation of the transition between the realm of the human and the realm of the divine, so that whenever a visitor entered the temple, he or she would be reminded of the special, sacred nature of the building into which he or she was going.

Pharaoh Akhenaten originally ascended the throne as Amenhotep IV, but changed his name to Akhenaten. He attempted to replace the polytheistic religion of Egypt with worship of the Aten, which was the sun disk associated with the sun god Ra. Akhenaten believed that the Aten was a deity in its own right, and as his reign progressed he tried to eradicate worship of the other gods in the Egyptian pantheon. He built the city of Akhenaten as a centralized location for worship of the Aten, and disbanded all other priesthoods and requisitioned their resources for the Aten as well. At his death, Egypt returned to its polytheistic religion and Akhenaten was considered a heretic. 

The art of the Amarna Period represents several drastic changes in the art of the royal court that coincide with the rift between the ruling family and the ruling priest class. These changes resulted in unique portraiture commissioned by Akenahten and Nefertiti that is exemplified by elongated, supple human forms and a divergence from the traditional, idealized portraiture of the preceding dynasties/rulers.  

The Great Temple of Amun at Karnak was built and rebuilt by the kings of the New Kingdom as a great ceremonial center. The architectural features characteristic of this temple were phylons forming gateways into large, private hypostyle halls and peristyle courtyards (hypostyle and peristyle meaning 'columned'). On the exterior grounds, two avenues of sphinxes lead into the public courtyards. This temple was dedicated to the worship of Amun, and therefore did not have pyramids for the burial of rulers.

Young students in ancient Egypt learned to read and write through rote memorization. Would-be scribes and government officials were instructed to copy out classic ancient texts in order to teach them how to write.

We know a considerable amount about the education of would-be scribes and government officials in the New Kingdom period. Egyptologists have determined that students were taught how to write in the hieratic script before later being taught to write and understand the much more cumbersome hieroglyphics. This is because the hieratic script was simpler, more commonly used, and more useful for government work.

The palace complex of Malkata is one of the few royal houses that survives in the archaeological record. Most archaeologists believe that it was a community that developed in Thebes to support the reign of Amenhotep III. The palace complex of Malkata provides important evidence about how Egyptian rulers lived and how their lives were intertwined with those of their subjects.

The Great Harris Papyrus dates from the reign of Ramesses III, during the twentieth dynasty. It is primarily notable for being the longest surviving papyrus. It provides a summary of the reign of Ramesses III and a list of his temple endowments.

The War Crown, also called the Khepresh, was most typically worn by the powerful rulers of the eighteenth dynasty. The eighteenth dynasty was the height of ancient Egyptian power during the New Kingdom and the Pharaohs of the eighteenth dynasty were accomplished military commanders who engaged in constant wars of aggression against their neighbors. The War Crown was meant to demonstrate their martial prowess and territorial reach.