Egypt 3.1: Egypt's Empire

Around 2200 BC, the ruling pharaohs in Memphis began to weaken. Ambitious rulers fought for control of Egypt. For more than 200 years, disorder and violence swept through the region. Finally, a new dynasty of pharaohs came to power. They moved the capital south to a city called Thebes. These new pharaohs began a period of peace and order called the Middle Kingdom that lasted from about 2055 BC to 1650 BC.​ During the Middle Kingdom, Egypt conquered new territories. Egyptian armies gained control of Nubia to the south and expanded northeast.

• ​required tributes from the people they conquered in Nubia

  ​added thousands of acres of farmland to increase crop production

  ​they built more irrigation dams and channels to supply more water to the population

  ​ordered the construction of a canal between the Nile River and the Red Sea

• ​traders were now able to send goods south by ship through the Red Sea

• ​Egyptian art and architecture thrived during the Middle Kingdom

• ​Painters decorated walls of tombs and temple with pictures of gods/goddesses, as well as everyday life

• ​sculptors carved hunting, fishing, and battle scenes on large stone walls

• ​sculptors also created statues of pharaohs depicting them as humans rather than gods

• ​Pharaohs not longer had pyramids built but had their tombs cut into limestone cliffs west of the Nile in a place now called the Valley of the Kings.

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• ​During the 1600s BC, some Egyptian nobles challenged the power of the pharaohs

• ​civil war divided Egypt, ending an era of peace and prosperity

• ​as the Middle Kingdom weakened, a group of people from Asia called the Hyskos invaded Egypt.

• they were powerful warriors who used methods of warfare unknown to the Egyptians​

• ​they rode horse-drawn chariots and fought with bronze and iron weapons

• ​they overwhelmed Egyptians and took control of the land

• ​they ruled Egypt for more than 100 years

• ​the Egyptian learned their warfare and around 1550 BC Egyptian prince Ahmose formed an army and drove out the Hyskos