(2) The Archaic Period.—The history of united Egypt begins with the reign of Menes or Mena, who in some way, whether by conquest or marriage is uncertain, united the two crowns. He came from the nome of This, of which the city of Abydos, sacred to the worship of Osiris, was the chief town. He and his successors continued to administer the two parts of Egypt as separate countries. Mena founded the first dynasty, and the second dynasty seems to have been connected with his house; it was, at all events, from the nome of This. These two dynasties ruled Egypt for 420 years, from 3400 to 2980 B. C. This is known as the archaic period of Egyptian history. Men were, during this time, gradually developing the art of expressing thought by means of picture-writing. At some time during the first dynasty the Egyptians began to work the turquoise mines in the Wady Maghara in the peninsula of Sinai. The tombs of this period were low, flat houses of brick. The Arabs call them mastabas or “benches.” During the second dynasty the Egyptians began to conceive of their gods in human form. They preserved the continuity of the earlier animal and bird forms by putting the old heads on human bodies.
(3) The Old Kingdom embraces dynasties three to six, and extended from 2980 to 2475 B. C., a period of more than 500 years. During the third and fourth dynasties the power of the king was supreme and the first great culmination of Egypt’s civilization occurred. It was in this period that the pyramids developed. Zoser, the first king of the third dynasty, built as his tomb the so-called Step Pyramid; (see [Fig. 7]). It consists of five stages which vary from 29½ to 36 feet in height. It is not, therefore, a true pyramid. At the base it is 352 × 396 feet. Seneferu, the last king of the third dynasty, built a similar tomb, but, as he made the stages lower and more numerous, it approached more nearly the pyramidal form.
Khufu or Cheops, the founder of the fourth dynasty, improving upon the work of his predecessors, constructed the first real pyramid and the greatest of them all. The blocks with which he built were about three feet high, and he made a step with each course of stones. A covering, which has now been removed, was originally placed over the whole, thus securing a perfect pyramidal form. This pyramid is now 750 (originally 768) feet on each side, and 451 (originally 482) feet high. It contains some 2,300,000 blocks of stone, each weighing on the average two and a half tons; (see [Fig. 6]). The stone was quarried from the Mokattam hills on the other side of the Nile, more than twelve miles away.
Khafre, the next king but one after Khufu, built the second pyramid, which is almost as high as that of Khufu, being 447½ feet, but measures on the sides but 690½ feet. Within and under the pyramids are the tomb chambers. Khafre also carved out of the native rock, not far from these two pyramids, the great Sphinx, the head of which bore a portrait of himself. From the top of the head to the pavement under the paws is 66 feet; the breadth of the face is 13 feet 8 inches, and the other parts are in proportion. Near the Sphinx stands a temple, built of polished granite, which is connected by an underground passage with the pyramid of Khafre. All these are silent but eloquent witnesses to the skill of the Egyptians of this period in stone work, and to the absolute power of the Pharaoh; (see Figs. [5] and [6]).
Menkaure, the next king, constructed a smaller pyramid, the side of its base being 356½ feet and its height 204 (originally 219) feet. Either his power was less or the resources of the kingdom were becoming exhausted. Though the pyramidal form of tombs continued for several centuries, no others were ever built that approached these in size.
The fifth dynasty was founded by a priest of On. During its rule the power of the king was not so absolute, and a powerful nobility began to develop. These nobles had themselves buried in tombs of the old mastaba type, and adorned the walls with pictures of the industries which were carried on upon their country estates. One of the most famous of these is the tomb of a certain Ti, from the pictures in which much has been learned of the various industries of ancient Egypt.
By the time of the sixth dynasty a strong nobility had been developed in the different nomes, so that the monarchy was thoroughly feudal. The absolute power that the kings of the first four dynasties had exercised had passed away. During the sixth dynasty the conquest of northern Nubia was begun, an expedition was sent to the far-away land of Punt, a country far to the south. It was probably the region on both sides of the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, comprising southwestern Arabia and Somaliland. An expedition was also sent over sea to Palestine, to chastise the inhabitants of the southern portion of that country for invading Egypt. The capital of Egypt during the whole of the Old Kingdom was Memphis. The city thus gained a prominence which made it ever afterward famous. In early times it had been called the White Wall, but after the sixth dynasty it was called Men-nofer, of which Memphis (Hosea 9:6) is a corruption. It is in the Old Testament more often called Noph, a corruption of the last part of the name. (See Isa. 19:13; Jer. 2:16; 44:1; 46:14, 19; Ezek. 30:13, 16.)
(4) The First Period of Disintegration covers dynasties seven to ten of Manetho’s list, a period lasting from 2475 to 2160 B. C. At the beginning of this period the powerful nobles in the different nomes seem, many of them, to have set up each a government of his own. Thus Egypt was once more resolved into many contending kingdoms. Through a cycle of 2,500 years a whole circle of political evolution had been completed. Starting with 42 chiefs or kinglets, the country had first become two kingdoms, then one kingdom. In this struggle the local nobility had been eliminated. Through nine hundred years the central monarchy was supreme, then slowly a new nobility developed, which finally overthrew the kingdom and once more made Egypt a group of weak and contending states.
During the last two hundred and fifty years of this period of darkness we gain some glimpses of a feudal monarchy which had its residence at Heracleopolis in central Egypt and controlled a good part of the land with varying degrees of success. These kings were apparently the ninth and tenth dynasties of Manetho.
(5) The Middle Kingdom.—About 2160 B. C. an eleventh dynasty arose and began to struggle for the supremacy, finally achieving it. This family belonged to the nome of Thebes, which had hitherto been of no particular importance. It now became the seat of government, and remained for 1,500 years one of the most important cities of Egypt.