EARLY EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION - Old Kingdom
OLD KINGDOM: (3100 – 2270 B.C.)
OLD KINGDOM: (3100 – 2270 B.C.)
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| EARLY EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION - Old Kingdom |
MENES – first dynasty; united Lower and Upper Egypt
- Memphis as the capital city
- merchant ships traded with people in other parts of Africa and the Mediterranean
- artist carved fine statues, workmen wove soft linen cloth; made pots
- pharaohs devoted their time in constructing pyramids
- Pharaoh Cheops (Khufu) built the Great Pyramid at Giza
- Khafre built a pyramid outside of Giza and the Great Sphinx
MIDDLE KINGDOM: (2060-1875 B.C.)
AMENEMHET I – 12th dynasty
- Thebes as a capital city
AMENEMHET III – greatest monarch; culture of Egyptians flowered
· less capable rulers followed Amenemhet III’s reign
· Hyksos – men of desert; “Shepherd Kings conquered Egypt
- Age of the Nobles
- Power of the pharaoh decline
- Civil war brought the collapse of the Old Kingdom
- Nobles’ political power emerged when the princes from the city of Thebes on the Upper Nile took place
- Made Egypt strong and prosperous
- Encouraged art and literature
- Initiated new irrigation projects
- Built a canal which linked the commercial centers of the Nile Valley with the trade routes of the Red Sea
- Middle Kingdom lapsed into civil war as rival leaders struggled for power
- Egypt was conquered by Hyksos from Western Asia
- Hyksos taught the Egyptian to wage war with the horses and to use chariots
