Middle East

Egypt

Egypt is located in the fertile lands of the Nile Valley, surrounded on both sides by deserts. The land along the Nile is divided into two regions: Upper Egypt, in the south, covers the area where the Nile flows from the highlands of East Africa north to the Mediterranean. Lower Egypt is the area of the Nile Delta on the Mediterranean coast. “Egypt is the gift of the Nile,” says an Egyptian proverb, marking the Nile's importance for life in this valley. Ancient Egyptian civilization started around 3000 BCE with the Old Kingdom, when phonetic pictographs (hieroglyphs) were first seen. The Pharaoh Menes united the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt under his central authority in 2900 BCE and made the city of Memphis the capital of his empire. Historians divide ancient Egypt into three ages, ruled in turn by 31 dynasties. The Old Kingdom started in 2660 BCE and ended in 2160 BCE; kings such as Djoser, Snefru, Khufu, [Page 790]Khafre, and Menkaure created an empire of social stability and high achievement in the arts, architecture, literature, mathematics, medicine, and astronomy. The power struggle among principalities dissolved the unity of the Old Kingdom and resulted in a period of independent provincial administrations. After this interval, the Middle Kingdom began circa 2040 BCE with the reunification of Egyptians and lasted until 1785 BCE when the Indo-European Hyksos hordes from the east ended the 12th dynasty's rule in the capital city, Thebes. The Hyksos's domination in Egypt ended in 1552 BCE, followed by the New Kingdom period under the rule of the pharaohs Tutmosis I, Tutmosis III, Queen Hatsepshut, Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten), his wife Nefertiti, Tutankhamen, Ramses I, and Ramses III. The New Kingdom's rule expanded to the Levant, and the Kadesh Treaty was signed with the Hittites in 1285 BCE. In the beginning of the first millennium BCE, the New Kingdom was beset by economic crises, social problems, rebellions of subject populations, and attacks by seafaring peoples. From 1070 on, Egypt was ruled by the military in the Lower regions and by the priests of Amon in the Upper regions. In the seventh century BCE, the Egyptians became the vassals of the Assyrian and Persian rules. The Persians were rulers of a disunited Egypt until Alexander the Great conquered it in 332 BCE and brought the Ptolemaic Dynasty to power. Egypt remained under Hellenic culture until 30 CE, when Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra lost the country to the Roman armies.

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