NECHAO. - Pharaoh of Egypt of the XXVI dynasty (609–595 B.C.), the second of that name, son of Psammetico I, whose work he continued.
Herodotus (II, 158) mentions first of all his excavation of a channel for navigation from the Nile to the Red Sea (a kind of anticipation of the Suez Canal), and elsewhere the initiative he took for the circumnavigation of Africa by Phoenician sailors (IV, 42). Shortly afterward he undertook a campaign against Nabopolassar, king of Assyria (Herodotus, II, 159), and since King Iosia of Judah, although the pharaoh had declared that he was not marching against him (II Par. 35, 20–25, cf. Ier. 42, 11), went out against him (II Reg. 23, 29), he was defeated at Mageddo on the Cison near Carmel and killed (II Par. 35, 23–24), leaving the kingdom to his son Ioachaz, whom N. put in chains at Rebla in the land of Emath, subsequently sending him to die in Egypt (II Reg. 23, 33–34; II Par. 36, 3); instead, he placed on the throne Eliacim, another son of Iosia, under the name of Ioakim, on condition that he pay him a large indemnity in gold and silver (II Reg. 23, 34–36; II Par. 36, 3–4). To celebrate the victory, N. dedicated his armor to Apollo Didimeo (Herodotus, II, 159). He was then defeated at Carchamia by Nabuchodonosor II in 605 (Ier. 46, 2–26) and was compelled to cede Syria to him; after this he withdrew into Egypt and never left it again (II Reg. 24, 7).