Page 64 - Egypt & the Eternal Nile by Private, Classic River-Yacht

Historians group the dynasties of Egypt into three kingdoms: the Old Kingdom, the Middle
Kingdom and the New Kingdom. The Old Kingdom lasted about 500 years. It was an age of
peace and prosperity, of artistic achievements and technological advances. The people of the
Old Kingdom worshipped their ruler as a god on Earth. They called him Pr’o (Pharaoh), and
believed him to be the son of the preeminent Egyptian sun god, Ra.

About 2200 B.C., the pharaoh’s power waned, the country entered a 50-year drought, and the
kingdom split into small, warring states. For the next 150 years, independent nobles ruled as
if they were kings. Public buildings, roads, and irrigation systems—as well as Egyptian society
itself—began to deteriorate.

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nation into a single state. For the next two centuries, Egypt once again enjoyed a period of
great peace and prosperity.

One of the greatest achievements of the Middle Kingdom was the construction of an enormous
irrigation system. Another notable aspect was the introduction of trade and commerce via
ships. The pharaohs sent ships up the Nile River to Nubia and across the sea to Mediterranean
lands. They used gold and copper from mines in Sinai to build the colossal Temple of Amen at
El Karnak.

In 1800 B.C., the Hyksos, a race of barbarians from the north, laid siege to Egypt. The
Egyptians fought on foot, as they had for centuries. The invaders used horses and chariots,
and had superior bows. It was no match; the Hyksos easily won. For the next several decades,
Lower Egypt was an occupied land. However, the Egyptians of Upper Egypt quickly adopted the
Hyksos’ new means of warfare and began a successful war of liberation, ushering in the age of
the New Kingdom.

Armed with their newly learned techniques of warfare, the rulers of the New Kingdom set
out to build an empire through foreign conquest. The Egyptians were highly successful,
conquering lands throughout Asia, North Africa, and the Mediterranean. Slaves were often
brought back to Egypt from conquered lands. The pharaohs used these slaves to build new
temples and repair old ones, including the remarkable Temple of Amenhotep at Luxor.

The religious center of the kingdom was the city of Memphis. Here, priests conducted
ceremonies in service to a rigid hierarchy of nature gods. Central to the Egyptian religion was
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of society. Elaborate burial tombs were erected for the pharaohs and their families. The most
notable of these were the great pyramids in Giza, architectural wonders unlike any the world
had seen, or has seen since.

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