The Early Dynastic Period (3100–2686 B.C.E)

Narmer (also sometimes known as Menes, but this was a title applied to
several archaic kings), the fi rst pharaoh to rule a united kingdom of the
Upper Nile and Delta, is said to have ruled for 67 years. He is memorialized
by a stone tablet called the Narmer Palette, which was excavated in
the temple at Hierakonpolis, that depicts him wearing a conical crown
that may stand for Upper Egypt and grasping a kneeling man (possibly
representing Lower Egypt) by the hair. The palette’s exact date is disputed
by scholars, but is estimated to be about 3000 B.C.E. It is conceivable that
the Upper and Lower Kingdoms had already united and broken up and
that Narmer reunited them. Whatever might have happened, every one of
Narmer’s successors is represented as wearing the crowns of both Upper
and Lower Egypt, and the pattern of dynastic rule was established.
Narmer is responsible for founding the fi rst capital of ancient Egypt,
Men Nefer, which the Greeks called Memphis, located some 12 miles
(19 kilometers) south of Cairo on the west bank of the Nile. It remained
the principal city of Egypt’s rulers until it was eclipsed by Thebes around
1300 B.C.E. South of Memphis is the vast cemetery of Saqqara, which
includes the earliest mastabas (free-standing tombs). In use for royalty
and nobility, some of them were decorated with reliefs depicting the

lives the deceased hoped to fi nd in the next world. Ancient Egyptians
believed that, if a dead body decomposed, its owner would not be able
to enjoy the afterlife. The priests of the early dynasties discovered how
to preserve the bodies of their deceased kings, commonly called “mummies,”
so that they might enjoy the afterlife. Since Egypt’s climate is
hot and dry, some bodies might have been preserved naturally, but the
processes of mummifi cation ensured their continued existence. These
essential features of the Archaic Period would set a pattern for the culture
of all subsequent Egyptian dynasties.
Key Features of Dynastic Egypt
By the time of the Third Dynasty and the beginning of the Old Kingdom,
Egypt had become a centralized theocracy with a complex religious and
political system, whose basic features are outlined below.
The Religious and Political System
The religious system developed by the Egyptians included a multitude
of gods who controlled every aspect of this life and a detailed vision of
the afterlife. Tied in with the religious beliefs was the ruling system,
which included the idea of divine kingship. This concept turned an
otherwise human pharaoh into a god on earth, a living connection
between what was mortal and what was eternal. The pharaoh alone
could worship the gods and maintain cosmic harmony. His crown,
scepter, other visible symbols of his authority, and titles connected him
to various gods, especially to Horus. His death and ritual rebirth served
to reconfi rm him.
Divine kingship was one solution to a problem faced by every
society: how to ensure that people will work together to survive and
prosper, and to defend themselves if need be. The ancient tribes in the
area had been hunter-gatherers as long as their climate could support
woods and plains. As the region dried up, people settled in oases or
on the banks of rivers, where they adapted to farming and trade. In
hard times one tribe might prey on its neighbors to take its food or
other goods. The leaders of the strongest tribes evolved into warlords.
Usually they were male and aggressive, gaining control by fi ghting
their challengers. They stayed in power by attracting other men to
their side and granting them special privileges. Over time each leader
extended control over a wider area, but the need to support retainers
was costly. Claiming divinity was a way of ensuring obedience without

needing to pay so much or take so many men away from their fi elds,
fl ocks, and families.
In Egypt the institution of divine kingship was reinforced by the Nile
fl ood. Managing its waters required the organized labor of most ablebodied
adults. A fl ood that inundated and fertilized fi elds that would
later be sown with grain was a blessing. A high one that swept away
houses, animals, and children was not. Needless to say, a low Nile that
left much of the ground hard and parched was just as bad. A powerful
king who commanded a corps of offi cials and engineers could usually
make the fl ood benefi t the people. It was natural for Egyptians to
believe that the king could control how much the Nile fl ooded each
year. Together, they called upon the gods who controlled the forces of
nature to bring a benefi cent fl ood and a bountiful harvest. By the same
logic, the people thanked the gods for a good harvest, hoping that the
next annual fl ood would serve them as well.
Life and Death
The ancient Egyptians built temples and pyramids and sought to prolong
the existence of their deceased rulers by embalming, wrapping, and
thus preserving their bodies. The pyramids—or, later, the tombs—that
they erected were intended to guard the bodies of their kings, along with
their possessions, forever. People often assert that the ancient Egyptians
were preoccupied with death. In reality, they were obsessed with life. The
ancient Egyptians, protected by seas and deserts, did not fear invasion
by alien armies, navies, or nomadic tribes. Their religion celebrated the
good life and sought to prolong it for the king and his nobles, assuming
that life after death would resemble the life they already knew. A divine
king, well cared for during and after his life, would ensure his subjects’
prosperity, for he was the emissary of the gods.
Rulers and Their Duties
The King
The king was charged with maintaining the balance of maat, the rule of
order that protected the world from the constant threat of chaos. It is
hard to translate or to defi ne maat, the principle of truth, order, balance,
and justice. Ancient Egyptians believed that unless the king and his people
preserved maat, forces outside creation would move in and destroy it.
The many gods of ancient Egypt were aspects of the Creator. All people
and all gods belonged to the created world, which encompassed all

levels of existence. Egyptians saw every act in life as part of a divine
will, mediated for them by the king.
In practical terms the king was expected to protect his people from
outside enemies and natural misfortunes, maintain justice, and above
all perform the religious rituals that would ensure the people’s continued
prosperity.
The rulers of ancient Egypt are customarily known as pharaohs. The
ancients did not use the term in the Old and Middle Kingdoms; only
around 1500 B.C.E. did the term pharaoh, originally applied to the palace
in which the king lived, come to be used as a royal title

aided by a vizier, or chief minister, or often by one vizier
for Upper Egypt and one for the Nile Delta. They headed a large and
increasingly elaborate class of scribes who collected dues and taxes,
supervised the construction of temples and other public works, and
kept government records. A separate hierarchy of priests helped the
rulers to carry out the religious rituals, especially those concerned with
ensuring their immortality. A class of judges settled disputes, especially
over land ownership, although some priests also served as judges. In
addition, there were local administrators for the 42 nomes (provinces

of ancient Egypt. Egypt during the Middle and New Kingdoms also
had a large army that conquered some of the lands of the Upper Nile,
mainly Nubia, and also ancient Syria and Palestine

Predynastic Egypt (to 3100 B.C.E.)

The environment was the single most infl uential factor on the people
of early Egypt. As the wet climatic phase at the end of the last Ice
Age receded, North Africa began to dry up, and peoples near the
Nile, accustomed to grassy plains and ample wild animals to hunt,
had to adjust to increasing scarcity. Probably organized into tribes,
these early peoples had begun to grow barley and emmer wheat and
to domesticate the wild cattle that abounded in their area, as well
as sheep and goats. In addition to the probability that these ancient
tribes migrated on land, there is some evidence that they were already
building boats and navigating both the Nile and the Red Sea before
they settled there.
It was not easy to adapt to living along a large river that fl ooded
annually, and people had to learn how to grow crops on shifting soil
and to channel and store the fl oodwaters to ensure an adequate harvest
to feed their families. Developing these skills by trial and error must
have taken centuries. For a long period Egyptians migrated between
the increasingly desiccated Western and Eastern Deserts and the Nile
Valley, following seasonal patterns of vegetation and animal life.
The earliest human remains in Egypt have been found in a desert
region called Nabta Playa (west of Abu Simbel). Ten thousand years
ago this area was covered with trees and grass. It supported such game
animals as elephant, rhinoceros, giraffe, ibex, deer, antelope, wild ass,
and ostrich. Nabta contains tombs not only for humans but also for
wild cattle, foreshadowing the cow cult that would prevail in ancient
Egypt. By about 7000 B.C.E. these early peoples had erected stone structures
aligned to the movement pattern of stars and constellations. The
oldest village site, dating to about 5000 B.C.E., is in the Eastern Desert,
near a modern village called al-Badari. Its people farmed, baked bread,
brewed beer, herded cattle, caught fi sh from the Red Sea, sailed boats,
fi red pots, and carved religious objects from bone and wood. They
traded with peoples of Southwest Asia and may have been the earliest

link between the peoples of Egypt and Sumer. Probably this trade connection
went via the Red Sea and the Arabian Peninsula.
Recent archaeological discoveries are uncovering many such settlements,
pushing back the dates for ancient Egyptian civilization well
before the dynastic era, which began around 3100 B.C.E. The predynastic
Egyptians had already learned to harness the Nile to irrigate their crops
and to transport their goods. They had domesticated dogs, donkeys,
cattle, sheep, and goats. They had created religious cults, built small
temples, founded a city known as Hierakonpolis that had a surrounding
wall and a ceremonial gateway, and set up a social hierarchy and political
system. Tribal organization gave way to city-states along the Nile.
By the fourth millennium B.C.E. the cities were becoming united
into two kingdoms, one for the Delta or Lower Egypt, called the Red
Land; the other for Upper Egypt, called the White Land. The earliest
Egyptians did all this while their country changed from a fertile
savanna and hunting ground into a desert punctuated only by oases
and the mighty river Nile. For ancient Egypt to emerge in all its glory,
though, someone had to unite the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt
under a single crown

ANCIENT EGYPT

Ancient Egypt was one of the world’s great civilizations. It was

blessed by a moderately warm climate, a river that fl ooded regularly

and fertilized the land with soil carried by the fl oodwaters from

the highlands of Ethiopia, and relative isolation from foreign invaders

for the fi rst 10 centuries of its existence. The people were industrious,

obedient to a government that ensured cooperation and justice, and

faithful to a pantheon of gods and goddesses who they believed ensured

their well-being in this life and after death.

The accomplishments of the ancient Egyptians are many and varied.

They pioneered in architecture, building comfortable homes as well as

monumental temples and tombs. Their builders devised every method

of joining wood (scarce even in ancient Egypt) known to carpentry, as

well as methods of air-cooling houses and even building latrines. Their

scribes developed one of the world’s fi rst writing systems, which they

used to keep records and to create stories, poems, and religious texts.

They also developed an early system of numbers, which they used to

survey land, calculate taxes, and measure weight, distance, and time.

Their artisans developed techniques and tools for working with copper,

tin, bronze, and precious metals such as silver and gold. Their scientists

explored astronomy, engineering, and medicine, and their artists created

sculptures ranging from miniature fi gures found in tombs to the

Great Sphinx of Giza, which rises 65 feet (20 m) above the bedrock out

of which it was carved.

Since ancient times historians have customarily divided Egypt’s past

by dynasties (ruling families), usually numbering 30. Egypt’s history is

generally divided into the following periods: the Predynastic Period (to

3100 B.C.E.), the Early Dynastic Period (First–Second Dynasties, 3100–

2686 B.C.E), the Old Kingdom (Third–Sixth Dynasties, 2686–2181 B.C.E)

the First Intermediate Period (Seventh–Tenth Dynasties, 2181–2040

B.C.E), the Middle Kingdom (Eleventh–Thirteenth Dynasties, 2040–

1750 B.C.E), the Second Intermediate Period (Fourteenth–Seventeenth

Dynasties, 1750–1550 B.C.E), New Kingdom (Eighteenth–Twentieth

Dynasties, 1550–1069 B.C.E), the Third Intermediate Period (Twentyfi

rst–Twenty-fourth Dynasties, 1069–715 B.C.E), and the Late Period

(Twenty-fi fth–Thirtieth Dynasties, 747–332).

The People of Egypt

Because of its central location on routes of trade, conquest, and migration,
through the centuries of its recorded history, Egypt has become home to
many temporary residents and permanent immigrants. With the passage
of time, each wave of new immigrants has assimilated into the local mix
of peoples, making modern Egypt a combination of Libyans, Nubians,
Syrians, Persians, Macedonians, Romans, Arabs, Turks, Circassians,
Greeks, Italians, and Armenians, along with the descendants of the
people of ancient Egypt. Upper Egyptians in antiquity were largely small
and fi ne boned, with narrow skulls and dark wavy hair. Those of the
Nile Delta, who had more contact with southwest Asian peoples, were
heavier and taller and their skulls were broader. Although the artistic
conventions of ancient Egypt were highly stylized, paintings and statues
show men with reddish-brown skin, while women are shown with much
fairer skin, perhaps because they spent more time indoors. Their facial
features resemble those of sub-Saharan Africans. Assumptions about
appearance must, however, be cautious.

Language and Religion
The ancient Egyptian language is considered by linguists to belong to
the Afro-Asiatic language group, which includes many other languages
spoken by ancient peoples. It survives in Coptic, which was a spoken
language from ancient times until about 1500, but now is used by
Egyptian Christians only in religious services.
Modern Egyptians speak Arabic, with a few words and phrases that
may be derived from the language of ancient Egypt. Written Arabic
is the same from Morocco to Kuwait, and is also the language of religious
law and ritual for the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims. The spoken
language of Egypt is not quite the same as written Arabic, which has
elaborate rules about grammar and syntax. Many Egyptians believe
that having Arabic as their native tongue makes them Arabs; in popular
usage, though, settled Egyptians call the Bedouins “Arabs,” but not
themselves. The vernacular dialects of Cairo and of Upper Egypt differ
from the colloquial Arabic of the Bedouins and from that of other Arab
countries, but Egyptians (like other Arabs) tend to view their spoken
dialects as “slang” and written Arabic as their “true” language, even
though it must be learned in school.
Egypt’s pharaonic religious beliefs gave way to Coptic Christianity,
but many ancient practices survived, especially among farmers. For
example, the months of modern Egypt’s agricultural calendar are the
same as those of ancient and Coptic Egypt. From the seventh-century
Arab conquest until modern times, Christianity has slowly given way to
Islam, but conversion to Islam was gradual and rarely forced. Although
Christians and Muslims celebrate holidays limited to their own religions,
in Egypt they share a spring holiday, Shamm al-Nasim (smelling
the breeze), observed on Easter Monday of the Coptic calendar, when
families go out from their houses to enjoy a picnic. In addition, as long
as the Nile fl ooded its banks each year, all Egyptians, whether Jewish,
Christian, or Muslim, joined in seasonal festivities marking the onset,
the progress, and the climax of the inundation that gave life and prosperity
to their country (Lane 1836, chapter 26).

Natural Resources

Natural Resources
Although ancient Egyptians made copious use of copper, silver, and
gold, the country today has few mineral resources that can be easily
developed. Limestone and sand are abundant and vital to construction
throughout Egypt’s history. Some iron deposits are found near Aswan,
and a large coal deposit has been found in northern Sinai. Phosphates,
salt, and gypsum exist. The main natural resources, as in many other
Middle Eastern countries, are petroleum and natural gas. Egypt’s main
oil fi elds are in the Western Desert and lands surrounding the Gulf of
Suez. Egypt is currently a net exporter of oil, but it is likely to become
a net importer by 2010 unless new fi elds are discovered. Natural gas,
found near Suez, has become Egypt’s major earner of foreign exchange.
Egyptians hope further exploration will uncover other sources of mineral
wealth.
Economy
For most of Egypt’s history the mainstay of the economy was agriculture,
especially growing and exporting cereal grains around the
Mediterranean basin. Egypt made the transition from a subsistencebased
economy to a cash crop economy long before most other Middle
Eastern countries. By the late 19th century long-staple (Egyptian)
cotton had become its leading export, followed by tobacco, indigo,
and sugar. Due to the rising use of synthetic fi bers worldwide, cotton
exports dwindled in the late 20th century. As Egypt’s arable land has
decreased in relation to its total population, other crops have overtaken
cotton, notably maize, rice, vegetables, and fruit.

More recently, the Egyptian economy has shifted away from agriculture
toward industry and services. The Egyptian government has tried
to promote manufacturing. However, industries such as construction,
transportation, and extraction of oil, natural gas, and minerals currently
add more to the gross domestic product. International tourism
is a service industry that employs millions of Egyptians, as is fi tting in
a culture that places great value on hospitality. But it is often disrupted
by political instability and terrorism. The country remains a leader in
education, fi nance, and culture in the Arab world.

THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE

Egypt is one of the oldest countries in the world. It has at least
5,000 years of recorded history, and many Egyptians claim for it
even more. Egypt is centrally located in relation to other concentrated
population centers in Europe, Asia, and Africa. For most of its recorded
past, at present, and probably well into the future we may view Egypt as
being set in the middle of commercial, migration, and invasion routes
that matter to Egyptians and foreigners.
Depending on how you look at the map, you can say that Egypt
occupies the northeast corner of Africa or the land between the Red
Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. It takes up a 30th of Africa’s total land
area and is 665 miles long (1,073 km) from north to south and 720
miles wide (1,226 km) from east to west. Its existence is bound up with
the River Nile; without the river, almost all the land would be desert,
and only a few people would live there. Because of the Nile, Egypt is a
vibrant country with 80 million inhabitants. In the words of the ancient
Greek historian Herodotus, “Egypt is the gift of the Nile

Geography
The country can be divided into fi ve regions: the Nile River Valley,
the Nile Delta, the Western Desert, the Eastern Desert, and the Sinai
Peninsula. Let us look at each in turn.
The Nile River Valley
The river Nile enters Egypt from Sudan, to the south, but its headwaters
lie in the lakes of Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, and Tanzania and
in the Ethiopian Highlands. It is the longest river in the world and it
drains about one-tenth of the African continent, yet its volume of fresh
water is far less than that of the Amazon or the Mississippi. It has long
eased the transport of people and goods in Egypt and parts of Sudan,

but no boat has ever gone the whole distance from any of its sources
to its current mouths at Rosetta and Damietta. For the ancients, Egypt
included only the lands along the last 500 miles of the Nile, from the
First Cataract (narrow rapids) at Aswan to the Mediterranean. The
upper Nile Valley is relatively narrow and fl at-fl oored; it widens after
the bend at Qena, reaching a width of 11 miles (18 km) at Cairo. After
that point the river fans out, forming the Nile Delta as it reaches the
Mediterranean Sea.
In Upper Egypt, the Nile Valley is never more than six miles across.
The area where crops were grown traditionally formed a narrow band
of green hugging the river shores and contrasting with the desert waste-land beyond, a no-man’s-land to the valley farmers. The Nile Valley
itself was for centuries distinguished—and made habitable—by the
annual Nile fl ood, which carries water and rich silt from the Ethiopian
Highlands. Moisture-laden trade winds blow into Africa from the south
Atlantic and meet dry winds from the north, producing heavy spring
rains that swell the Sobat, Blue Nile, and Atbara Rivers in Ethiopia and
cause the fl ood. Before the Aswan High Dam was built in the 1960s,
dwellers in the valley would see the Nile starting to rise between mid-
May and early July, with the peak fl ood in September. Agricultural land
was inundated, not only in the valley and Delta but also in the Fayyum
Oasis connected to the Nile. The receding waters left behind a layer of
sedimentary mud that fertilized the next year’s crops.
To take advantage of this benefi cence, the Egyptian people learned how
to build dams, weirs, embankments, and basins, channeling and storing
the river waters to facilitate raising their crops. The river fl ood occurred
annually, with slight variations in the dates of its rising and falling, but
the amount of water could differ greatly from one year to the next. Too
much water could sweep away houses, food stores, animals, and people;
too little might leave the land hard and cracked, unable to support crops.
Other Middle Eastern rivers fl ood in springtime, damaging crops and
settlements; only the Nile rises at a time when it would otherwise be too

hot for agriculture. In ancient times, the Egyptians thought that their king
controlled these variations in the annual Nile fl ood. Only in the last two
centuries have people come to understand how and why the fl ood occurs
when it does.
The Nile Delta
The Nile Delta lies along Egypt’s northern coast, where the river empties
into the Mediterranean Sea. This region includes more than half
of contemporary Egypt’s farmland. A widening fl at area, totaling some
8,500 square miles (22 thousand sq. km), it has been built up over
time as the Nile deposited sediment near the river’s mouth. The Delta
is mostly level, though it contains low mounds, or tells, that mark the
sites of ancient settlements. One of the most intensely cultivated areas
in the world, it is dotted by thousands of agricultural villages as well as
cities such as Alexandria at its northwest corner and Mahalla and Tanta
in its center. Population density is as high as 4,000 people per square
mile (1,545 per sq. km).
The Nile Valley and Delta regions are home to nearly all of Egypt’s
population. Both ancient and modern Egyptians have differentiated
between dwellers in the Nile Valley south of Cairo (Upper Egypt), or

“Saidis,” and those living in the Delta north of Cairo, or “Bahrawis.”
Depictions of Egypt’s ancient kings contain symbols indicating a double
kingship, as ancient Egypt was thought to represent the unifi cation of
the valley and Delta.
The Western Desert
The Western Desert constitutes more than two-thirds of Egypt’s total
land area, but is home to a tiny percent of the population; the population
density of Egypt’s deserts is about 1 person per 2.5 square miles (6
sq. km). The Western Desert is an extension of the Libyan Desert and
hence the easternmost part of the Sahara. The land is basically a low
plateau, mainly sandstone in the south, some limestone in the north,
and covered by the Great Sand Sea in its western half. Some underground
strata contain large quantities of water that have not yet been
fully exploited. Five oases lie in depressions watered by springs: Siwa,
Bahriya, Farafra, Dakhla, and Kharga. The northwest contains the very
low-lying, uninhabited Qattara Depression. The sandy white beaches
and coastal towns along the Mediterranean were developed during the
1990s as an area of resorts and vacation homes. Some oil and natural
gas deposits have been discovered and are being exploited, as exploration
in the Western Desert continues.

The Eastern Desert
The Eastern Desert does not resemble its western counterpart. It consists
mainly of elevated and mostly rugged mountains paralleling the
Red Sea coast. The western and northern hills contain a lower, limestone
plateau. The loftiest of the southern mountains is more than
7,000 feet (2,000 m) above sea level. Some of the mountains near the
Red Sea contain mineral deposits that are not commercially exploitable.
The Red Sea coastal beaches are being developed as a resort area for
swimmers, scuba divers, and seashell collectors.
The Sinai Peninsula
Many people think of the triangular Sinai Peninsula as belonging more
to Asia than to Africa, but its mountainous south is closely related to
the Red Sea hills, from which it was separated by the geological faults
that form the Gulf of Suez and have provided Egypt’s largest petroleum
deposits. Southern Sinai is especially renowned for Jabal Katarina
(Mount Saint Catherine, the site of the famous Greek Orthodox
monastery of that name) and Jabal Musa, popularly called Mount

Sinai. (However, scholars differ on just where Moses received the Ten
Commandments.) Sinai has developed rapidly since Israel returned it
to Egypt between 1975 and 1982. It is now a center for oil production,
mineral mining, and international tourism. The northern Sinai is a
limestone plateau, relatively fl at, and extremely accessible to invading
armies and migrating peoples throughout history. The Isthmus of Suez
was pierced in 1869 by the Suez Canal, a major maritime waterway
connecting Europe with Asia and East Africa and also a barrier to
migrating Bedouin.
Climate
Egypt is a hot, dry country. Summer temperatures go up as high as
104°F (40°C), and seldom do winter temperatures drop to freezing
(32°F, 0°C). In Cairo, the average temperature ranges from 57°F (14°C)
in January to 85°F (29°C) in July. The temperature range in Alexandria
is 57°F (14°C) in January and 80°F (26°C) in August. Upper Egypt
and the deserts have hotter days and colder nights throughout theyear. A prevailing north wind has a cooling effect on the country, but
in spring the infamous khamsin winds may blow from the southwest,
spewing sand, dust, and hot air through the Nile Valley and Delta,
making people and animals miserable until the winds subside. Only
a thin band of land along the Mediterranean coast can count on rainfall,
averaging about four inches per year. Frosts are rare and snow
is unknown. Egyptians and foreign residents traditionally praise the
Egyptian climate as healthful. However, air and water quality have both
deteriorated in recent years owing to the increased crowding of the
population, especially in the cities. These trends have been exacerbated
by industrialization, the spread of motor vehicles, and climatic changes
caused by the Aswan High Dam, completed in 1970