User Guide

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A Quick Guide to the History of Egypt
strengthening of that of other families was instrumental in the collapse of
the Old Kingdom. The last Old Kingdom ruler, the Sixth Dynasty’s Pepy
II, governed Egypt for about 94 years, the longest reign of any monarch
in recorded history. Age eventually hampered his ability to govern, and
the families that had been entrusted to govern the different areas, or
Nomes, of Egypt seized more power. Famine completed the downfall of
the central government. The climate had changed, and the yearly mon-
soons that created the Nile’s flood ceased. Without the flood, farmland
became less fertile until it eventually could no longer support crops. The
basis of the economy was gone, people were going hungry, and Pharaoh,
a living god on earth, was powerless to do anything. Ancient Egypt again
splintered into small communities, each with a provincial leader at its
head. The central government disappeared.
First Intermediate Period
7th-11th Dynasties
2195-2066 BC
The First Intermediate Period was a time of strife. Famine’s grip
on the populace was strong, and leaders of the many small communities
did what they could to feed their people. Eventually, Upper Egypt and
Lower Egypt again took shape as separate kingdoms.
By about 2160 BC, a group of rulers located at Henen-nesw
(Herakleopolis) managed to reunite Lower Egypt. The Herakleopolitan
rulers were the rightful heirs to Egypt’s throne and claimed full royal titu-
lary. They expelled Libyans and Asiatics who had moved into the Nile
Delta looking for food. They repaired old irrigation canals, fortified the
borders and opened trade with Byblos in Lebanon. The Herakleopolitan
kings were also renowned for their cruelty. Still, they managed to unite
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A Quick Guide to the History of Egypt
sequent pyramids would mimic. The pyramid takes its name from the
color of the monument at sunset.
Pyramid building reached its apex with Khufu’s (Cheops’) pyra-
mid at Rostja (Giza). The pyramid, the largest still standing, was originally
about 476 feet tall with sides of about 750 feet in length. It consists of
about 2,300,000 blocks of limestone. The entire pyramid was encased in
Tura limestone, brought to the site from On (Heliopolis). Pyramid-
building continued throughout the Old Kingdom, and some early Middle
Kingdom pharaohs had them built. In all, about 50 royal pyramids have
been discovered in Egypt, with dozens of smaller pyramids built for lesser
nobility.
The grandeur of the pyramids underscored the pharaohs’ standing
as gods on earth and reflected the power and wealth they held during the
Third and Fourth Dynasties. Some historians estimate that most of the
nation’s wealth was devoted to pyramid construction.
The Fifth Dynasty marked a shift away from building colossal
pyramids. Pyramids were still constructed, but on a much smaller scale,
because more resources were devoted to building Temples of the Sun.
Userkaf, the first pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty, built the first
Temple of the Sun at Djedu (Abusir). Six other Fifth Dynasty pharaohs
built Temples of the Sun, cementing the solar cult as the central theology.
Eventually, the tightly centralized government that made monu-
ment building possible began to break down. While the Fourth Dynasty
pharaoh filled government posts with close relatives, the Fifth Dynasty
pharaohs did not follow suit. The extensive network of government offi-
cials remained, but these posts were no longer filled by relatives of the
pharaohs. Rather, nobility from other families filled these posts. From
their relationship with pharaoh, they gained power without necessarily
having the sense of loyalty that a blood relative might have.
This weakening of the pharaohs’ power combined with the