So then, let’s start.

Basically, Egyptian history is easy in the same way as English history is easy. At any moment in English history between the 11th and the 20th centuries you can be fairly sure that the King is either waging war against the French or is trying to get money to do so, or maybe both. England, or Britain is a known concept. These islands haven’t really changed that much. There used to be tensions between the English and the Scottish and going back a bit further between the Welsh and the English, and there still are some tensions between the Irish and the English, but not anywhere near as bad as it used to be. Throw in the establishment of the Church of England under Henry VIII and a brief period as a republic (Cromwell) and you’ve got a pretty good overview over British history right up to the start of the 19th Century.

Ancient Egyptian history is similar. Egypt always was the area of land irrigated by the Nile to the north of the rocky, shallow area known as the first cataract. Egyptian pharaohs were always fighting off half-hearted invasions from Libya to the West or Lebanon to the North East. In good times, the Sudan to the south of the first cataract (which was called Nubia) was part of the Egyptian empire, in bad times the pharaoh would send some soldiers to “conquer” it (which probably meant reestablishing trade routes). As well as this there’s a kingdom of Punt which is mentioned every now and then, and no one really knows where it was, and the Egyptians even attacked Mesopotamia (a Greek word meaning “the land between the rivers”, the rivers here being the Tigris and the Euphrates. The current name of this area is Iraq and is situated a long way to the north-east of Egypt) once or twice after they’d discovered things like horses and chariots.

So that’s the basic idea. One other important fact which really helps structure Egyptian history and tells us a lot about Egyptian life is that Egypt was actually divided into two countries. The first and the most traditional one was called Upper Egypt, and the second one which had more contact with other countries was called Lower Egypt. To understand this you have to have a look at the geography of Egypt. Egypt looks like a flower with a long stem. The stem is the Nile to the North of the first cataract up to the Lower Kingdom which starts where the Nile breaks up into smaller tributaries which flow into the Mediterranean. So the Southern bit (Upper Egypt) didn’t have as much contact with the sea-faring cultures and it also was quite a way away from new cultural influences coming in from the North-East (Lebanon, Syria, Mesopotamia, etc). Anyway, the important thing is that as long as the two lands were united as one, things went well, but every now and then, things fell apart (because of food shortage or invasion), and the lands fell apart and Egyptian history gets murky.

So let’s see a simple overview of Egyptian history:
1/ Old Kingdom. The Upper and the Lower Kingdom are united to one. This may have happened about 3000 years BC. The Old Kingdom lasted until about 2200 BC, when all over the Mediterranean civilisations collapsed. The current explanation is that there were a number of extremely bad harvests in a row and a lot of the population died of starvation. The Old Kingdom is famous nowadays mainly because of the pyramids, which were mostly built then.

2/ First intermediate period. In-fighting between the Upper and the Lower kingdom. Two different royal houses. Lasted about 100 years before Egypt was unified again under a ruler from the Upper Kingdom.

3/ Middle Kingdom. Lots of art and some temple building in Karnak and Luxor (right next to Thebes). Quite a short period, about 400 years. The end of this period appears to be quite unclear. At any rate sources tell of an invasion by a people known as the Hyksos from somewhere in Asia. However many consider the word “invasion” to be too strong and instead regard the Hyksos as being foreign settlers allowed in to help the building projects.

4/ Second intermediate period. At any rate, Thebes declared independence and the Upper Kingdom seperated from the Lower, which became ruled by the Hyksos. The Hyksos probably brought horses, composite-bows and chariots to Egypt. But generally they were unliked and thought of as irreligious foreigners. About 1600 BC Thebes had had enough and the pharaohs there kicked out the Hyksos and reunited Egypt.

5/ New Kingdom. This was a great time to be Egyptian. Lots of stuff was built (Karnak, Luxor, valley of the kings …), lots of wars were fought (and the Egyptians won most of them). The Egyptian empire grew to its largest extent and lots of treaties and trade negotiations were established. This lasted upto about 1100 BC, when things turned decidedly pear-shaped. Current theories suggest bad harvests and bad flooding of the Nile (important for the irrigation of the farmlands) caused by some volcanic eruption. The whole thing fell apart.

6/ Third intermediate period. This refers to quite a long period (upto about 650 BC) where there is lots of stuff going on. Basically the land was divided into lots of different counties and religious states, and though there seem to have been some periods of stability, the land was not united, so we might as well call it an intermediate period.

7/ Late Period. This is traditionally dated up to the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC). Egypt was united, but then was invaded by Persians (nowadays Persia is called Iran). Egyptologists often point out how sad and dismal this period was compared with the great and glorious past.

8/ Greek conquest and occupation followed by Roman conquest and occupation. Fall of the Roman empire etc. etc.

So that was a basic start to Egyptian history. In my next installment I’ll probably start naming some names (like Cheops, Rameses and Tutankhamum) and mentioning when they ruled. I may also start to talk about Egyptian religion, which appears to me to be just one great big mess at the moment.