NMC101: Exam

Buto

"Capital" of Lower Egypt. Stressing the duality of the country, Uto was the representative of Lower Egypt but, in rituals and myths, Buto was treated as the capital of Lower Egypt—represented like Hierakonpolis, its Upper Egyptian counterpart, by "souls," believed to be the deities or former kings.

Hyksos

"Hyksos" was originally a common designation for foreign rulers, but it became—according to the Turin Canon and to inscriptions on scarabs and the royal protocol on a doorjamb—the official designation of at least the first three of the six kings of the fifteenth dynasty (although the Turin Canon lists all six with this designation). After King Khayan, this strange title was possibly dropped, which could be seen as a sign of a political trend toward a more thorough Egyptianization. Egypt's fifteenth dynasty was of Near Eastern origin. According to the Turin Canon, it ruled Egypt for 108 years (c.1664-1555 bce). Strictly speaking, the term Hyksos should be used only for these kings and not as an ethnic designation, as introduced by the third-century bce Greco-Egyptian historian Manetho. http://www.oxfordreference.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/view/10.1093/acref/9780195102345.001.0001/acref-9780195102345-e-0328?rskey=g47lYp&result=1

Nekau II (king) Ruled 610-595 BCE 26th Saite Dynasty, second king Late Period

A son of Psamtik I, he was one of the most vigorous and far-sighted of Late period rulers. Sources on Necho are dominated by his foreign policy, where the major issue was the threat of Chaldean expansion. His military resources on land were supplemented by a force of ramming warships, which may have been triremes (a galley having three tiers of oars on each side). This fleet was intended to counter any attempt to mount a two-pronged attack by land and water on Egypt and also to support the western flank of Necho's forces in the Near East. His campaign in Syria-Palestine was initially designed to assist the Assyrians in forcing out the Chaldeans, and Necho enjoyed some early success. He defeated Josiah, King of Judah, at Megiddo in 609 bce, thus guaranteeing his freedom of movement up the grand trunk road to Mesopotamia, and he established a base at Carchemish, which he held until his catastrophic defeat there in 605 bce. The Chaldeans subsequently pushed the Egyptians south to the eastern frontier of the Delta, but the Egyptians held there. Necho's operations in this area were reflected in Herodotus' fifth-century bce account of his successes against Migdol and Gaza in 601-600 bce. Necho also focused his foreign policy efforts on the Red Sea, in which the Egyptians had longstanding commercial interests, and he began the construction of a canal through the Wadi Tumilat to join it to the Nile. He also based a force of warships there, presumably to guarantee safe passage for his ships in the face of threats from Edomite or Sabean raiders. Research in the latter twentieth century indicates that Necho also dispatched a military force into Nubia, where the Saites were more deeply involved than previous scholarship indicated.

Aswan

A town on the eastern bank of the Nile, at the foot of the First Cataract (24°05′N, 32°54′E). The modern name of Aswan is derived from Greek Syene and, ultimately, from Egyptian swnw, meaning "to trade." The region of Aswan was important as a major source of granite, and quarries were located on both sides of the river, the principal ones being south of the present-day town. There was also much quarrying of granite from the smaller islands in the river; that may have served the dual function of providing granite while clearing the river channels, thereby easing passage through the cataract. From the early Old Kingdom onward, Aswan had an important role as defender of the southern frontier and the starting point for many military and trading expeditions into Nubia.

Sharuhen

After the reconquest of Avaris and the eastern Delta region, the Egyptians of the early New Kingdom were still vulnerable. The Hyksos had not been thoroughly defeated, especially since several sites show that they must have had an intact domain to the northeast of the Delta in southern Palestine. There, a subdynasty of the main Hyksos existed (probably the sixteenth dynasty). Southern Palestine was the main olive oil and wine source for the Hyksos, as known from the many amphoras in Avarais from that region. Great were the resources and economic strength of this remaining Hyksos kingdom, to which the Avaris Hyksos withdrew; thus the potential of a reconquest of Egypt from this nearby base still existed in the early New Kingdom. The attack by Ahmose on Sharuhen in southern Palestine was then a logical move for the stabilization of his reign. According to the biography of his namesake Ahmose, son of Abu, it took three years to take Sharuhen.

Mittani

As one of the four great powers of the ancient Near East and a powerful northern Mesopotamian kingdom, the Mitanni controlled an extensive peripheral empire during most of the Late Bronze Age. The kingdom of Mitanni resulted from the unification of several small states of northern Mesopotamia by a group of Indo-Aryans who had detached themselves from the main Aryan migration south into India. Unlike the other major civilizations of the ancient Near East, knowledge of the kingdom of Mitanni comes almost exclusively from its neighbors: from the Amarna Letters; from Egyptian, Hittite, Babylonian, and Assyrian records; and from its vassal kingdoms of Alalakh (in northern Syria), Arrapkha (east of the Tigris River, principally from the town of Nuzi), and Khana (on the middle Euphrates River and the lower Khabur). http://www.oxfordreference.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/view/10.1093/acref/9780195102345.001.0001/acref-9780195102345-e-0463?rskey=a0ZLzN&result=1

Assyria

Assyria was a major Mesopotamian East Semitic-speaking kingdom and empire of the ancient Near East. It existed as an independent state from perhaps as early as the 25th century BC,[1] until its collapse between 612 BC and 599 BC, spanning the Early to Middle Bronze Age through to the late Iron Age.[2][3] Beginning with the campaigns of Adad-nirari II from 911 BC, it again became a great power over the next three centuries, overthrowing the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt and conquering Egypt, driving the Ethiopians, Kushites and Nubians from Egypt.

Qadesh

Battle of Qadesh, Rameses II. The Hittites, under the command of King Muwatalli, were encamped by the city of Kadesh, at the southern end of their sphere of influence. They sent out two spies—who had false information that the Hittite army had moved north again and was located some 200 kilometers (120 miles) away in the vicinity of Aleppo—and deliberately allowed them to be captured by the Egyptians. The Egyptian forces, four divisions under the command of Ramesses II, headed toward Kadesh upon learning this misinformation. The Hittite forces, concealed on the far side of the city, allowed the first Egyptian division (Amun) to pass by and then fell upon the second division (Re), cutting it to pieces, while the third division (Ptah) was still crossing the Orontes River and the fourth division (Seth) was even farther behind. In a premature anticipation of complete victory over the Egyptian forces, the Hittite troops began looting the equipment and belongings of the dead Egyptians from the Re division, thus allowing the remaining Egyptian divisions time to approach and fall upon the Hittites, decimating their forces in turn. Although both sides had suffered defeat, and the battle ended in stalemate, both the Egyptians and the Hittites claimed victory upon their respective return home.

Buhen

Buhen was an ancient Egyptian settlement situated on the West bank of the Nile below (to the North of) the Second Cataract. On the East bank, across the river, was located an ancient settlement of Wadi Halfa.

Cleopatra VII (queen) Ruled 51-31 BCE Ptolemaic Dynasty, sixteenth ruler

Cleopatra VII was born to Ptolemy XII Auletes (80-57 bce, ruled 55-51 bce) and Cleopatra, both parents being Macedonian Greeks. In March of 51 bce, she became coregent, at the age of seventeen, with Ptolemy XIII, her six-year-old brother, although at least one ancient Egyptian monument, dated to her first regnal year, described her as Egypt's sole monarch. In 48 bce, the pursuit into Egypt by Roman general Julius Caesar of his rival, the Roman general Pompey, occasioned the death of Ptolemy XIII, by drowning, in a sea battle against Caesar. The younger brother Ptolemy XIV Philopator I was thereby elevated to the position of Cleopatra's coregent in 47 bce. Cleopatra's involvement with Julius Caesar began in 48 bce and soon blossomed into an equal partnership, based on shared political objectives. To that end, she accompanied Caesar to Rome, was installed in opulent surroundings, and was presented as Venus (the mythological ancestress of the Roman race), an act in accord with Caesar's own imperial ambitions but perceived as sacrilegious by conservative Romans. In 47 bce, she bore Caesar a son, Caesarion by name. The assassination of Julius Caesar in Rome, in 44 bce, had forced the return of Cleopatra VII to Egypt, at which time she murdered her brother and coregent Ptolemy XIV with a lethal dose of poison. In 41 bce, she courted the assistance of Caesar's heir Mark Antony, who wed her in 37 bce. She bore him three children—a set of fraternal twins and a second daughter, Cleopatra Selene. Together, she and Antony continued to implement her dream of world domination, eliminating all opposition at home, including that of her sister Arsinoe IV, whose murder they occasioned at Ephesus. On 2 September 31 bce, Cleopatra and Antony challenged the might of Rome at Actium, in the ancient world's last sea battle. Recent excavations at Actium and a critical reassessment of the pertinent ancient texts suggest that Cleopatra's flight from that encounter was not due to cowardice but is rather to be attributed to a planned maneuver effecting her successful escape. Realizing that her principles would be compromised if she effected a rapproachment with Augustus, and unwilling to subject herself to the humiliation of a Roman triumph, Cleopatra VII nobly chose ritual suicide rather than life as a captive. She took her own life on 12 August 30 bce, eleven days after the ritual suicide of Antony. Hardly a beauty, as Cleopatra's coin portraits reveal, the ancient sources are, however, unanimous in their assessment of her intellect and political acumen. She was the only member of her Macedonian Greek dynasty who knew the hieroglyphs. Furthermore, she based the external trappings of her monarchy on the precedents provided by famous ancient Egyptian female monarchs, Hatshepsut among them, as were clearly demonstrated in her representations and the accompanying inscriptions at the temple of Hathor at Dendera. From both a Hellenistic Greek and an ancient Egyptian perspective, Cleopatra VII was a heroine, one who dared to assert her Greco-Egyptian legacy, openly consorting with and challenging the might of Rome.

*Djoser (king) Ruled c. 2687-2668 BCE 3rd Dynasty, first king Old Kingdom

During whose reign the first pyramid (the Step Pyramid) was built at Saqqara, the necropolis of Memphis, which was then the capital of Egypt.

Hypostyle Hall, Karnak

Dynamic battle reliefs on the outer northern wall of the Great Hypostyle Hall in Karnak show Sety I as a triumphant warrior-king in two campaigns: one occurred in southern Palestine against the Shasu-Bedouin, the other took place in the Orontes Valley in Syria, where he repelled Hittite troops and regained the town of Kadesh. At Thebes, he constructed the Great Hypostyle Hall in front of the temple of Amun at Karnak and on the western side of the Nile River, he built a mortuary temple and spendid royal tomb (tomb 17 in the Valley of the Kings) with elegant, colorful reliefs and an astronomical ceiling.

Hittites

Egyptians and Hittites were in contact since the early days of the Hittite Old Kingdom, established by Hattushili I (c.1700 bce). There, in the new capital city, Hattusas, on the central plateau of Anatolia (present-day Turkey), a vase fragment inscribed with the name of the Hyksos king Khyan was found by German excavators in the twentieth century. It was an indicator that Egypt and the Hittites were in at least indirect contact by the time of Egypt's Second Intermediate Period. For some five hundred years, from the seventeenth through the twelfth centuries bce, their contact was more usually hostile than peaceful, but trade and exchange did take place. To judge from their texts, the Hittites seem to have primarily imported and exported perishable goods—grain, horses, metals (both raw and finished objects), jewels, furniture, and fabrics; for the second millennium bce, this is true for their dealings with Egypt as well as with other polities. The first Egyptian textual mention of "Hatti" (ḫ-t-ʒ; alt., ḫt), as Hittite Anatolia was known during the second millennium bce, appears during the time of Thutmose III. References to "Hatti" do not consistently appear in Egypt until the reign of Amenhotpe III. Relations between Egypt and Hatti truly began to deteriorate during the reigns of the Egyptian pharaohs Amenhotpe III and Akhenaten and the Hittite king Shuppiluliuma I. In large part this was caused by Hittite territorial expansion during their New Empire period, under the leadership of Shuppiluliuma I (c.1400 bce). They quickly came into contact and conflict with the New Kingdom Egyptians in the region of North Syria, an area which had been under Egyptian domination and influence since the days of Thutmose III (c.1450 bce). There are indications in the Amarna Letters that an Egyptian-Hittite peace treaty was eventually signed between Shuppiluliuma I and Amenhotpe III in the early fourteenth century bce; this is possibly the famous Kurushtama Treaty, which is known to have been ratified by these two major second-millennium bce powers. More certain is a treaty signed between Shuppiluliuma and Akhenaten several decades later, perhaps after actual fighting between the two forces. Ironically, Shuppiluliuma I and his eldest son eventually fell victim to, and died from, a plague brought to the Hatti homelands in Anatolia by Egyptian prisoners who had been captured by Hittite forces in North Syria during one of those intermittent conflicts. Although there were a number of additional attempts by Egyptian forces to regain control of North Syria, as for example during the reign of Sety I in the early nineteenth dynasty, Egyptian influence was primarily limited to the region south of the city of Kadesh in Syria. The discovery of both Egyptian and Hittite artifacts at the site of Ugarit/Ras Shamra, however, reveals that this thriving North Syrian port city was allowed to remain an international entrepôt even after the Hittites had wrested the area from Egyptian control. The most famous conflict between the Egyptians and the Hittites was fought in Year 5 of the reign of Ramesses II, at the Battle of Kadesh, by the Orontes River in Syria. There are two Egyptian accounts of that battle, known as the Bulletin (or Record) and the Poem; these are supplemented by pictorial reliefs (wall scenes) with explanatory captions. The narratives were inscribed on the walls of temples at various locations in Egypt, including Abydos, Luxor, Karnak, Abu Simbel, and the Ramesseum. False messengers trick. In a premature anticipation of complete victory over the Egyptian forces, the Hittite troops began looting the equipment and belongings of the dead Egyptians from the Re division, thus allowing the remaining Egyptian divisions time to approach and fall upon the Hittites, decimating their forces in turn. Although both sides had suffered defeat, and the battle ended in stalemate, both the Egyptians and the Hittites claimed victory upon their respective return home. A treaty between the two powers was ultimately signed some years later, which still exists in two copies: an Egyptian version inscribed twice at the Temple of Karnak and at the Ramesseum in Egypt (said to have been copied from the original text that was reportedly engraved on a silver tablet), and a version in Akkadian on a cuneiform clay tablet found at the Hittite capital city of Hattusas. To further cement the new peaceful relations between the Hittites and the Egyptians, Ramesses II later married a Hittite princess in an effort to establish familial bonds between the two powers. An era of peaceful relations followed, exemplified by the pharaoh Merenptah's efforts to send a shipment of grain to the Hittites during a time of need in the late thirteenth century bce. The peaceful times were not destined to last long, however, for the Hittite Empire was destroyed about 1200 bce, by either the Sea Peoples, who were roving the Aegean at that time, or the Kashka, those quarrel-some neighbors of the Hittites located to the northeast of Hattusas.

Sphinx

Facing directly West to East, it stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt. The face of the Sphinx is generally believed to represent the Pharaoh Khafre.

Ahmose (king) Ruled c.1569-c.1545 BCE 18th Dynasty, first king New Kingdom

First king of the eighteenth dynasty and the founder of the New Kingdom. The son of Sekenenre Ta'o and the powerful queen Ahhotep, he succeeded to the throne upon the death of his brother Kamose. As he was probably about ten years old at the time, his mother Ahhotep served as regent until he was about sixteen. Having assumed power, he immediately took steps to drive the Hyksos out of Northern Egypt, and he achieved his goal within the first decade of his reign, thereby completing the task that his father and his brother had begun. King Ahmose first launched a successful attack on Avaris, the Hyksos capital in the Nile Delta. The city having fallen, he chased his enemies into southern Palestine and subdued them. He then settled an insurrection to the south, in Nubia. With Egypt now secure, he guaranteed its safety by returning to deal one final blow to the Hyksos in Palestine and southern Phoenicia. He reformed and strengthened the internal administration so that it could effectively carry out his orders. The limestone quarries at Tura were reopened, and the construction of monumental royal and temple buildings was resumed. Although there are few remains of these structures, what does exist reveals generally high craftsmanship. Temple remains give evidence that he fostered the cult of the Theban god Amun-Re. Also during his reign, Egypt renewed the foreign contacts that had been broken when the Hyksos ruled. Trade took place with the Near East, Byblos, Crete, and Nubia. Ahmose was buried near his seventeenth dynasty ancestors at Dra Abul Naga at Thebes, and he was honored with a cult at Abydos throughout the eighteenth dynasty.

Mentuhotep II (king) Ruled 2011-2000 BCE 11th Dynasty Middle Kingdom

First pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom, reunited Egypt following the First Intermediate Period. Mentuhotep II's most ambitious and innovative building project remains his large mortuary temple. The many architectural innovations of the temple mark a break with the Old Kingdom tradition of pyramid complexes and foreshadow the Temples of Millions of Years of the New Kingdom.[32] As such, Mentuhotep II's temple was certainly a major source of inspiration for the nearby but 550-year later temples of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III. However, the most profound innovations of Mentuhotep II's temple are not architectural but religious. First, it is the earliest mortuary temple where the king is not just the recipient of offerings but rather enacts ceremonies for the gods (in this case Amun-Ra).[33] Second, the temple identifies the king with Osiris, a local Theban god which grew in importance from the 11th Dynasty onwards. Indeed, the decoration and royal statuary of the temple emphasizes the Osirian aspects of the dead ruler, an ideology apparent in the funerary statuary of many later pharaohs.[34] Finally, most of the temple decoration is the work of local Theban artists. This is evidenced by the dominant artistic style of the temple which represents people with large lips and eyes and thin bodies.[35] At the opposite, the refined chapels of Mentuhotep II's wives are certainly due to Memphite craftsmen who were heavily influenced by the standards and conventions of the Old Kingdom. This phenomenon of fragmentation of the artistic styles is observed throughout the First Intermediate Period and is a direct consequence of the political fragmentation of the country. The temple is located at Deir el-Bahri.

Kush

Following the First Intermediate Period, Yam was replaced in the texts by the vague polity of Kush (kʒs, kʒš), first named on the stela of Senwosret I at Buhen, which commemorated his conquest of Lower Nubia. During the Middle Kingdom, one or more undated Egyptian campaigns against "wretched Kush" were recorded during the twelfth dynasty reign of Senwosret I (1971-1928 bce). No others were listed until the reign of Senwosret III (1878-1843 bce), when they clustered in the eighth, ninth, twelfth, sixteenth, and nineteenth years of his reign, probably as a result of his fort-building activities at the Second Cataract of the Nile. The long intervals of time during which Kush was not mentioned in texts, however, have suggested that Kush's relations with Egypt were primarily peaceful and that its rulers, like their predecessors at Yam, were the chief middlemen in the Nile trade that connected Egypt with central Africa. As Egypt's power declined during the Second Intermediate Period, Kush extended its influence northward, as was revealed by stelae of Egyptian officials at Buhen who acknowledged their service to its kings. By the seventeenth dynasty, however, Kamose, king of Thebes, went to war with the Kushites in Lower Nubia, as he did with the Hyksos kings in the Nile Delta, in an effort to expell both from traditional Egyptian territory.

Punt

For about two thousand years (c.2600-600 bce), Punt appeared in Egyptian sources as a real geographical and political entity. Later, it featured as merely an antiquated entry in Greco-Roman period name lists. The phrase "God's Land" serves as a partial synonym for Punt in literary sources, but it covered a large area—almost anything northeast, east, or southeast of Egypt. In its heyday (c.2400-1170 bce), Punt served the pharaonic government and temples primarily as a source of aromatics (ʿntyw and snṯr, normally understood as myrrh and incense), and also of gold, electrum (a natural silver and gold alloy), panther skins, and other exotica. Most of those goods reached Egypt through indirect trade by a chain of middlemen, except when the pharaohs dispatched occasional major expeditions to conduct direct trade with Punt. In the latter case, high officials from the court would, on occasion, lead the intended expedition as far as its Red Sea departure point, while a lesser royal envoy commanded it out to Punt and back. Then, the responsible higher official (like Chief Treasurer Nehesi under Hatshepsut) would present the results to the sovereign at court.

Piramesse, Per-Ramses

From the early days of Egyptology, continuing attempts were made to locate the position of the Ramessid capital called "The House of Ramesses Beloved of Amun Great of Victories." It was believed to be identical with the biblical city called "Ramesses," from which the Israelites departed Egypt on their Exodus. With further progress of the excavations at Tanis and Qantir, all data led to the final localization of the Ramessid capital in the region between Qanti and el-Khata'na, which has come to be generally accepted. Qantir/Piramesse, the central area of which covers more than 10 square kilometers, is about 100 kilometers (65 miles) northeast of Cairo and about 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Ismailia, not far from Faqus, in Sharkijeh province.

Siamun (king) Ruled 984-965 BCE 21st Dynasty Third Intermediate Period

He built extensively in Lower Egypt for a king of the Third Intermediate Period and is regarded as one of the most powerful rulers of this Dynasty after Psusennes I.

Ramses III (king) Ruled 1198-1166 BCE 20th Dynasty, second king New Kingdom

He was the son of King Sethnakht and Queen Tiy-Merenaset. His two main wives, Isis, the daughter of a foreign lady called Hemdjeret, and the other a queen whose name is not known bore him at least ten sons, including the future kings Ramesses IV, VI, and VIII. The main historical sources for the reign are the inscriptions of the king's funerary temple at Medinet Habu (in Western Thebes) and the pseudoautobiographical history of the reign known as Papyrus Harris I. Until the fifth year of his reign, apart from the pacification of Nubia, Egypt was at peace, allowing the king to establish his power and to start building Medinet Habu (not completed before Year 12). Then, from Year 5 to 11, he fought three attempted invasions of Egypt: in Year 5, the Libu people of Cyrenaica; in Year 8, the Proto-Hellenic Sea Peoples, who had wrought destruction across the Near East; in Year 11, the coalition of Libyan tribes led by the Meshwesh. On the thirtieth anniversary of his accession to the throne, the king celebrated his sed-festival at Memphis. This solemn display of the king's powers was accompanied by some dissatisfaction: in Year 29, the workmen of Deir el-Medina went on strike four times to obtain their monthly wages in grain, which the state's administration, then overworked by the festival's preparation, failed to deliver in time. A year later, a party of high officials, probably prompted by the impending death of the king, plotted with a secondary queen, Tiye, to give the crown to her son Pentaweret instead of to the legitimate heir, Prince Ramesses (the future Ramesses IV). The view that the king fell victim to this "harem conspiracy" remains unsubstantiated. Nevertheless, the conspirators were exposed and about forty people were put to death, revealing a division between the dynasty and the governing class, ominous for any future power. Ramesses III was buried in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, although his mummy would be discovered in the Deir el-Bahri cache. As none of his eight successors, Ramesses IV to XI, achieved anything memorable, he is justly considered the last significant king of the New Kingdom.

Herakleopolis Capital during First Intermediate Period

Herakleopolis was the capital not only of its nome but also of Egypt's northern kingdom during the time of intermittent civil strife known as the First Intermediate Period. Almost nothing is known of the Herakleopolitan kings, some of whom were named Kheti. The most famous king was Merikare, who was the addressee of a Middle Egyptian treatise on kingship, Instructions for Merikare. The Herakleopolitan kings were buried at Saqqara and perhaps elsewhere; no royal burials have been found at Herakleopolis itself.

Avaris

Hyksos ruled from here.

Cedar Wood

Imported from Lebanon. Used to build boats, resin for mummification.

Papyrus

In terms of the origins of popular writing surfaces, one can argue for the existence of papyrus and other soft textiles having been used as such in the Early Dynastic Period: a hieroglyph representing a roll of papyrus did exist at the time, despite a lack of material findings due to probable decomposition (Regulski, 2009). The Ancient Egyptians' development of papyrus is seen as a huge technological advance; it was not only reusable and relatively inexpensive to manufacture, but it also stood the test of time seeing as we have many examples of Egyptian papyri in our collections today. Constructed from a marsh-bound reed plant of the same name, papyrus was made by lining up sliced strips of the reed's pith, adding diagonal layers, and adhering them by force (Powell, 2009). These rolls usually comprised of around 20 fused sheets, tied together and sealed with a clay block indicating the commissioner of the scroll (Powell). Scribes wrote with the reeds as well; these brushes were housed in wooden cases next to small, carved ink depositories for the two most common colours (Danzing, 2010).

Kerma

Kerma was the seat of one of the first African kingdoms (2300-1500 bce), identified in Egyptian texts as Kush from the Middle Kingdom onward. Archaeological evidence virtually confirms that the capital of Kush was located at present-day Kerma, Sudan, about 650 kilometers (420 miles) upstream from Aswan and about 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) upstream from the Third Cataract, on the eastern bank of the Nile. The city of Kerma was probably destroyed under Thutmose II of the eighteenth dynasty, when all of Nubia fell to Egypt.

Ramses II (king) Ruled c. 1304-1237 (or 1279-1213) BCE 19th Dynasty, third king New Kingdom

King of Egypt for sixty-six years and some months, he came from a family of military origin, from the eastern Nile Delta. His father Sety I appointed the young Ramesses as prince-regent (not coregent), with all the attributes of kingship (including a harem), except his own regnal years. Prince Ramesses participated in some of his father's wars (plus a minor Nubian raid of his own) and in the supervision of his father's building works. When he became sole ruler, Ramesses II made his mark in four ways: with his ambitious wars and peace treaty; as an unequalled builder of temples; as a family man; and as an innovator in religious and other spheres. The memory of his reign and deeds also impacted on later epochs. http://www.oxfordreference.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/view/10.1093/acref/9780195102345.001.0001/acref-9780195102345-e-0602?rskey=HJKGy5&result=3

Narmer Palette

Narmer is best known for the great Narmer Palette, discovered in Quibell's 1897-1898 excavation season at Hierakonpolis (Kom el-Ahmar). The obverse of the palette is divided into three registers, the uppermost of which gives Narmer's name placed in a serekh, flanked by human-faced bovines. The second register dominates the obverse: Narmer, wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt, smites an enemy in a posture that was to become emblematic of pharaonic power to the end of Egypt's pre-Christian civilization. The third register shows dead, nude enemies. On the reverse of the palette, the upper register of the obverse is duplicated. The second register shows Narmer wearing the Red Crown of Lower Egypt, inspecting rows of nude, decapitated enemies. The third register shows a man mastering serpent-necked lions, and the fourth register shows a bull destroying a town and trampling a dead enemy.

Narmer (king) c. 3150 BCE - ? 1st Dynasty, first king Early Dynastic Period

Narmer is best known for the great Narmer Palette, discovered in Quibell's 1897-1898 excavation season at Hierakonpolis (Kom el-Ahmar). The obverse of the palette is divided into three registers, the uppermost of which gives Narmer's name placed in a serekh, flanked by human-faced bovines. The second register dominates the obverse: Narmer, wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt, smites an enemy in a posture that was to become emblematic of pharaonic power to the end of Egypt's pre-Christian civilization. The third register shows dead, nude enemies. On the reverse of the palette, the upper register of the obverse is duplicated. The second register shows Narmer wearing the Red Crown of Lower Egypt, inspecting rows of nude, decapitated enemies. The third register shows a man mastering serpent-necked lions, and the fourth register shows a bull destroying a town and trampling a dead enemy. Narmer was viewed as the dynasty's foundational king by his immediate successors. Similarly, Egyptian sherds inscribed with the name of Narmer have been found in Lower Egypt (e.g., Minshat Abu Omar and Tarkhan) and in southern Palestine (e.g., Tel Erani and Tel Arad). The precise historical import of these facts is difficult to establish, but at a minimum, Narmer's presence was felt to some extent throughout Egypt and even into Palestine. Narmer appears to have been buried in the Umm el-Qaab cemetery at Abydos.

Nomarchs

Nomarchs (Ancient Egyptian: heri-tep a'a) were Ancient Egyptian administration officials responsible of the provinces. Effectively serving as provincial governors, they each held authority over one of the 42 nomes (Egyptian: sepat) into which the country was divided.

Abydos

On the western side of the Nile, the site is on the edge of the low desert, 15 kilometers (9.5 miles) from the river. Greater Abydos spreads over 8 square kilometers (5 square miles) and is composed of archaeological remains from all phases of ancient Egyptian civilization. Abydos was significant in historical times as the main cult center of Osiris, ancient Egypt's primary funerary god. Many cult structures were dedicated to Osiris, and vast cemetery fields were developed, incorporating not only the regional population but also nonlocal people who chose to build tombs and commemorative monuments at Abydos. In the Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods, Abydos may have functioned primarily as a satellite funerary center for the nome capital of Thinis, which is perhaps to be located in the vicinity of the modern town of Girga or Balliana at the edge of the Nile. The significance of Abydos, however, exceeded that of a provincial burial center. It was the burial place of the first kings of Early Dynastic times (first and second dynasties), and during the subsequent Old and Middle Kingdoms Abydos evolved into a religious center of great importance. The most striking buildings standing at Abydos are the well-preserved New Kingdom temples of Sety I and Ramesses II (nineteenth dynasty); the Early Dynastic funerary enclosure of King Khasekhemwy (second dynasty); and the walled enclosure called the Kom es-Sultan, which was the location of the early town and the main temple dedicated to Osiris. The greater part of the site, however, remains concealed beneath the sand, a fact recognized in the Arabic name of the modern town: Arabah el-Madfunah ("the buried Arabah"). http://www.oxfordreference.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/view/10.1093/acref/9780195102345.001.0001/acref-9780195102345-e-0005?rskey=twgXx4&result=1

Amenhotep III (king) Ruled 1410-1372 BCE 18th Dynasty, ninth king New Kingdom

One of the wealthiest and best-attested rulers, Amenhotpe III, governed Egypt for more than thirty-eight years. Presumably the chosen heir of his father Thutmose IV, Amenhotpe probably became king before the age of twelve. A punitive expedition to Nubia in the fifth year of his reign was carried out by the king's army and may have taken the troops as far south as the Shendi reach of the Nile River, above the Fifth Cataract. Although the kings of the eighteenth dynasty primarily ruled from Memphis, Amenhotpe III built a residential complex on the western bank of the Nile at Thebes, at a site now called Malqata. During the second half of his reign, the king oversaw, personally or through advisors, a near transformation of the existing religious monuments in Thebes, and he added to them his enormous funerary temple at Kom el-Hetan. Amenhotpe III's primary wife was Queen Tiye, to whom he was married in Year 2. The daughter of a court noble with land holdings near modern Akhmim, Tiye shared Amenhotpe's throne and produced his heir Amenhotpe IV, along with a number of male and female children. In religious and royal ideology of the reign, Tiye was considered to be the mother sky goddess, while the daughters were treated as the consorts or daughters of the sun god. The diplomatic correspondence of Amenhotpe III and his contemporary Near Eastern rulers is partially preserved in the Amarna Letters, cuneiform tablets found at Amarna. The gold wealth of the king was envied by the rulers of Babylonia and Mitanni, and Amenhotpe used his affluence to bring the princesses from those countries to Egypt as his wives. Amenhotpe's sobriquet, while he lived, was "the Dazzling Sundisk," and his court became proverbial for luxury. His courtiers and administrators came from old noble families, in conformity with his explicit policy of not choosing any but "blue bloods." Although it is certain that Amenhotpe IV (who became Akhenaten) succeeded his father, scholars remain divided on whether there was a coregency between the two rulers and whether such a joint rule would have been of two or twelve years.

Akhenaten (king) Ruled 1372-1355 BCE 18th Dynasty, tenth king New Kingdom

Originally Amenhotpe IV, he succeeded his father Amenhotpe III. Commonly known nowadays as the "heretic king," at his accession Akhenaten bore the same personal name as his father. His mother was Queen Tiye, the Great Royal Wife of Amenhotpe III. Akhenaten's own principal queen was Nefertiti, who bore him six daughters. The earlier, Theban phase of Akhenaten's reign witnessed the realization of an ambitious building program at the Karnak temple which aimed to appropriate the cult center of the state god Amun for the worship of a solar deity favored by Akhenaten. The king's vision of this god evolved rapidly during his Theban period—from a falcon-headed man labeled "Re-Horus of the Two Horizons" to the aniconic image of a sun disk (aten; in Egyptian, itn) whose rays end in hands. Akhenaten gave his sun god a programmatic name which, in his third regnal year, came to be written in car-touches that had traditionally been used for royal names. Implicit in this innovation was the notion that the disk reigned like a king. By this time the institutions of the traditional gods had been economically subordinated to Aten's cult. The reliefs that Akhenaten commissioned at Karnak show that ritual was reduced to the presentation of offerings. The king's personal name was altered from Amenhotpe ("Amun is satisfied") to Akhenaten ("Beneficial for Aten") by early Year 5 at the latest. At that time he commanded the foundation of a new capital city in middle Egypt devoted to the exclusive worship of the disk. The king's plans for building and embellishing Akhetaten ("Horizon of Aten"), the name he gave to this new capital, were outlined in proclamations issued when it was founded and on the first anniversary of this event. As actually built, Akhetaten served as a vast stage for the conspicuous "display" of the royal family—elaborately orchestrated progresses to and from the temple, feasts on occasions such as the awarding of honors to members of the elite, and pageants staged to demonstrate the ruler's omnipotence. Egyptian diplomacy in Asia was characterized by efforts to balance one power against another. This policy was in large measure successful until quite late in Akhenaten's reign, when the Hittites defeated Egypt's allies, the Mitanni. Akhenaten's "revolution from above" was conservative and aimed at reasserting the pharaoh's absolute authority over the elite, which had eroded over the centuries. The term "monotheism" can be applied with some justification to the fully developed religion as practiced at Akhetaten by the king and queen. The population at large was denied access to the god; the disk was approachable only indirectly, through the king and, to a lesser extent, through the queen. The desecration of Amun's and Mut's figures and of their names, even as they occurred in proper names of earlier kings and nonroyal persons alike, was widespread by the end of the reign. Akhenaten's penchant for novelty and display will have impressed the elite in a variety of ways. Of the innovations introduced in the visual arts, the manner in which the king himself was depicted retains its shock value down to the present. The king's physiognomy (his hanging chin, thick lips, sunken cheeks and slanting eyes) and "effeminate" body (narrow shoulders, fleshy chest, swelling thighs, pendulous abdomen, and full buttocks, in marked contrast to spindly limbs and a scrawny neck), especially as embodied in the colossi commissioned for the Karnak temple, have raised questions about his physical and mental health. But aberrations from previously accepted norms need not reflect his actual appearance. They are better understood as stylistic and iconographic devices chosen to stress Akhenaten's uniqueness. When Akhenaten died, he was buried in the tomb that had been begun for him in accordance with the stipulations of the decree founding Akhetaten, but he did not long rest undisturbed. Early in the reign of Tutankhamun, an officially sanctioned campaign of defamation was undertaken against Akhenaten. His works at Karnak were pulled down, and eventually the official buildings at Akhetaten were demolished too, with the quarried stone at both sites appropriated for reuse. Akhenaten's figure and name, along with Nefertiti's, were hacked out of reliefs and their statuary smashed.

C-Group

Originally known as Group C, the C-Group was one of a number of similar terms first coined by the American archaeologist George A. Reisner in 1907 to designate a Nubian grave type located during his excavations in Cemetery 7 at Shellal, immediately upstream of the First Cataract of the Nile River. The C-Group was characterized by graves with the deceased orientated east-west, laid on its right side, head to the east, facing north. Accompanying the body were beads, and closely associated with the graves were black-and-red polished pottery and a unique incised ware of local Nubian production that remains one of the most distinctive features of the C-Group cultural assemblage. The form of the grave monument was another distinctive feature, a tumulus constructed of concentric rings of small upright stone slabs. The C-Group was contemporary with Egypt's Old Kingdom and lasted into the New Kingdom's early eighteenth dynasty, approximately seven hundred years. The C-Group culture is still largely known from its mortuary remains; the people, at least in the earlier phases, are thought to have been pastoralists, with flocks principally of sheep and goats but also including cattle, which were frequently depicted on the locally made pottery. The early C-Group population probably occupied temporary camp sites, which have left little trace in the archaeological record. A more settled lifestyle gradually developed, associated with some reliance on agriculture, and hunting and fishing probably remained important. In the larger centers, an abundance of wealth derived from trade led both to increased social differentiation and to political development toward statehood. The most substantial of the few permanent settlements known from that phase, at Wadi es Sebua, is a village of over 100 stone-built, circular and subrectangular houses, bounded by a thick defensive wall. Archaeologically the C-Group is attested from Kubanniya, a little to the north of the First Cataract, to the Batn el-Hagar, the inhospitable region in present-day Sudan immediately upstream of the Second Cataract. The C-Group were a nonliterate people. To learn about their history, the ancient Egyptian sources were consulted, which contain a wealth of information recorded by traders and military expeditions that operated to the south of Elephantine; later, records were kept by administrators. The northern part of this area was known to the ancient Egyptians as Wawat; farther upstream, was Irtjet, Setju, and Yam. The C-Group people had been warlike, and for a long time had served as mercenaries in the armies of the pharaohs. The conquest of Wawat by the Egyptians was thus no easy matter, and hostilities were extended for some time—for about one hundred years. During the Second Intermediate Period, Egyptian control of the C-Group lapsed but the political vacuum was rapidly filled by an advance of the Kushites from the south, who brought with them their distinctive Kerma Classique culture, which was overlain on that of the indigenous population. It was during the Kushite domination that C-Group culture, as an independent entity, became increasingly adulterated. It disappeared forever with the New Kingdom occupation of Nubia.

Piye (king) Ruled 735-712 BCE 25th Kushite Dynasty, third king Late Period

Piya, also known as Piankhy, was the first ruler of the Kushite kingdom to attempt to control all of Egypt; he is therefore to be viewed as the real founder of the twenty-fifth dynasty. His activities are known mainly from his monumental stela erected at the site of Napata (Gebel Barkal). On his famous stela of victory, dated to the twenty-first year of his reign, Piya is described as focusing particular attention on the city Hermopolis, led by Namlot, who subsequently betrayed him. Egypt at this time was nominally held by a weak and ineffective pharaoh, Takelot III (r. 750-720 bce), who effectively ruled only his center in the eastern Nile Delta, Bubastis. Real control over the land was held by numerous monarchs, among the most powerful of whom was Tefnakhte, prince of Sais in the western Delta (r. 724-717 bce). It was Tefnakhte who organized the resistance to Piya after the Kushite ruler had effectively gained control of Hermopolis and, hence, of all Upper Egypt. After recounting the fall of Hermopolis in his stela, Piya then explains in detail his march to regain control of the old capital of Memphis and its final capture through another siege. At this point, the war became more complicated for the Kushite ruler. Although Piya claimed pharaonic jurisdiction over the entire Nile Valley—a theological claim as well as a political one—and although he had received approval from the priesthood at Heliopolis, Piya faced organized resistance from the western Delta. It was Tefnakhte who initiated opposition to Piya's control over Middle Egypt after Namlot, the ruler of Hermopolis, had switched his allegiance from Piya to the Saite ruler, and after other major cities in the vicinity also opposed the Kushite pharaoh. This political move was the effective cause of Piya's march north, eventually to capture all of Egypt and subsequently to take Memphis itself. Piya returned to his ancestral kingdom of Kush and erected his stela of victory in his twenty-first regnal year (c.715 bce). Known mainly from the lengthy and detailed inscription on his victory stela as well as from decorated blocks at Thebes, Piya remains a shadowy figure, especially in contrast to his successors. He was not a native Egyptian and, as such, was vehemently opposed by the native rulers.

Senwosret III (king) Ruled 1878-1843? BCE 12th Dynasty, fifth king Middle Kingdom

Senwosret III was best known for his military achievements, distinctive portraiture, imposing monuments, and administrative reforms; these inspired both deification and his later incorporation into the legendary King Sesostris of classical times. He extended Egypt's southern boundary to Semna, at the southern end of the Nile's Second Cataract, beyond which Nubians were permitted to pass only to trade or on official business. Stelae at the boundary recorded that Senwosret III surpassed his forefathers, admonished the Egyptians to maintain "my boundary," and described himself as aggressive, thoughtful, and merciful, whereas he described the Nubians as avoiding confrontations—only to attack when he withdrew. He built or expanded fortresses along the Nile from Buhen to Semna South and his ships advanced at least as far as the Dal Cataract. In the Levant, he captured a district called "Skmm," perhaps the biblical Shechem. Senwosret III further consolidated Egypt's government by ending the authority of all but the last of the nomarchs (the governors of the nomes, or provinces), a process started earlier in the twelfth dynasty. The officials' sons were probably then brought into the bureaucracy at the capital, rather than confirmed in their fathers' local positions. Senwosret III became a patron deity in Nubia during the Middle Kingdom. Later, during the New Kingdom, temples were dedicated to him there, and the Nubian king Taharqa had an altar erected in his memory. Greek and Roman authors, most notably Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, combined recollections of Senwosret III, Senwosret I, and Ramesses II into accounts of a king Sesostris—a conqueror, builder, and lawgiver.

Seqenenre Tao (king) Ruled starting 1560 or 1558 BCE, likely only a few years 17th Dynasty Second Intermediate Period

Seqenenre Tao is credited with starting the opening moves in the war of liberation against the Hyksos, which was ended by his son Ahmose. Seqenenre Tao participated in active diplomatic posturing, which went beyond simply exchanging insults with the Asiatic ruler in the North. He seems to have led military skirmishes against the Hyksos and, judging from the vicious head wound on his mummy in the Cairo Museum, may have died during one of them. Seqenenre's mummy was discovered in the Deir el-Bahri cache, revealed in 1881. He was interred along with those of later, eighteenth and nineteenth dynasty leaders, Ahmose I (his second son to be pharaoh), Amenhotep I, Thutmose I, Thutmose II, Thutmose III, Ramesses I, Seti I, Ramesses II, and Ramesses IX. The wound on his forehead was probably caused by a Hyksos axe[5] and his neck wound was probably caused by a dagger while he was prone.[3] There are no wounds on his arms or hands, which suggests he was not able to defend himself. Until 2009 the main hypotheses have been that he died either in a battle against the Hyksos or was killed while sleeping.[6] A reconstruction of his death by Egyptologist Garry Shaw and a weapons expert suggested a third, which they saw as the likeliest, that Seqenenre was executed by the Hyksos king.

Amarna a.k.a. Tell el-Amarna, Akhetaten

Site of the New Kingdom capital of the eighteenth dynasty king Amenhotpe IV/Akhenaten (r. 1372-1355 bce), built to honor his sole god Aten, located in Middle Egypt (27°38′N, 30°53′E). The large mud-brick and stone expanse of the city, as well as the cuneiform clay tablets found there within a state archival office, have made Tell el-Amarna important to archaeologists and essential to historians of the Near East interested in the Late Bronze Age. http://www.oxfordreference.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/view/10.1093/acref/9780195102345.001.0001/acref-9780195102345-e-0025?rskey=2Okr8P&result=2

Crete

Sporadic contacts, perhaps indirect, between Egypt and Crete go back into the third millennium bce. The first truly sustained contact, however, began with the rise of the Minoan palaces early in the second millennium bce, continuing then through the end of the Late Bronze Age (c.1150 bce). Old Kingdom objects, primarily stone vessels, have been found at a number of sites on Crete, as have Second Intermediate Period objects, such as a calcite (Egyptian alabaster) lid with the cartouche of the Hyksos king Khyan that was uncovered at Knossos. In the Nile Delta region of Egypt, fresco wall paintings were discovered at the Hyksos capital of Avaris (present-day Tell ed-Dabʿa), with scenes of bull-leaping, are similar to those more commonly found on Minoan Crete. Certainly, contacts between Minoan Crete and Egypt flourished during the eighteenth dynasty. For example, numerous New Kingdom Egyptian objects have been found on Crete, and a number of Minoan ceramic vessels have been found from that time in Egypt, indicating that trade and contact were ongoing (albeit, perhaps, sometimes indirectly via Canaanite merchants). Perhaps the most important of all those inscriptions was that found at Kom el-Hetan, dating from the time of Amenhotpe III, which not only mentioned Keftiu but listed Knossos, Phaistos, Kydonia, and Lyktos, among other Aegean place names. Objects with the cartouche of Amenhotpe III and his wife Queen Tiye have been found at several such Minoan sites, and they may indicate a connection to the list at Kom el-Hetan.

Byblos

Strongest Levantine trading partner. An important commercial port during the Bronze Age and Iron Age, Byblos (known in Egyptian as kbny or kpny; in Akkadian as gubla; in Canaanite as gublu; and in Hebrew as gebal) was an eastern Mediterranean transshipment point for timber, oil, resins, and wine, and it was a shipbuilding center as well. The ancient Greek name of the town, Bublos (from which comes the English word Bible), meant "papyrus scroll" and was so called because the residents obtained papyrus from Egypt and shipped it to the Aegean world. Egypt had maintained a special commercial and political relationship with Byblos during most of the third and second millennia bce, and Egyptian kings had sent valuable gifts to the temples and rulers of Byblos to sustain that relationship. For example, more stone vessels, statuary, reliefs, and other large objects inscribed with Egyptian royal names are known from Byblos than from any other site in the Near East; nearly 20 percent of the Amarna Letters from the fourteenth century bce came from Byblos.

Abusir Papyru

The Abusir Papyri are the largest papyrus findings to date from the Old Kingdom in ancient Egypt.[1][2] The first papyri were discovered in 1893 at Abu Gorab near Abusir in northern Egypt. Their origins are dated to around the 24th century BC during the Fifth dynasty of Egypt, making them, even though often badly fragmented, also some of the oldest surviving papyri to date. The Abusir papyri are considered the most important finds of administrative documents from the Old Kingdom. They give detailed information about the running of a royal mortuary temple and include duty rosters for priests, inventories of temple equipment, and lists of daily offerings to the two solar temples at Abu Gorab, north of Abusir, as well as letters and permits.

Abydos King List

The Abydos King List, also known as the Abydos Table, is a list of the names of seventy-six kings of Ancient Egypt, found on a wall of the Temple of Seti I at Abydos, Egypt. It consists of three rows of thirty-eight cartouches (borders enclosing the name of a king) in each row.

Annals of Thutmose III

The Annals of Thutmose III are composed of numerous inscriptions of ancient Egyptian military records gathered from the 18th dynasty campaigns of Thutmose III's armies in Syro-Palestine, from regnal years 22 (1458 BCE) to 42 (1438 BCE). These recordings can be found on the inside walls of the chamber housing the "holy of holies" at the great Karnak Temple of Amun. Measuring just 25 meters in length and 12 meters wide, the space containing these inscriptions presents the largest and most detailed accounts concerning military exploits of all Egyptian Kings.

Battle of Qadesh

The Battle of Kadesh (also Qadesh) took place between the forces of the Egyptian Empire under Ramesses II and the Hittite Empire under Muwatalli II at the city of Kadesh on the Orontes River, just upstream of Lake Homs near the modern Syrian-Lebanese border.[10] The battle is generally dated to 1274 BC in the conventional Egyptian chronology,[11] and is the earliest battle in recorded history for which details of tactics and formations are known. It was probably the largest chariot battle ever fought, involving perhaps 5,000-6,000 chariots.[12][13][14] As a result of the multiple Kadesh inscriptions, it is the best documented battle in all of ancient history.

Gebel Barkal

The Egyptians had first occupied Napata during the eighteenth dynasty reign of Thutmose III (r. 1504-1452 bce ), probably following the final overthrow of the Kushite monarchy at Kerma. According to his Barkal stela, Thutmose established his frontier there, built a fortress called "Repelling the Foreigners," and identified Gebel Barkal as a residence of Amun. Around 1450 BCE, the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III extended his empire to that region and considered Gebel Barkal its southern limit. There, he campaigned near the city of Napata that, about 300 years later, became the capital of the independent kingdom of Kush. The 25th Dynasty Nubian king Piye later greatly enlarged the New Kingdom Temple of Amun in this city and erected his Year 20 Victory stela within it.

Ptolemies

The Ptolemaic period is the entire epoch of Hellenistic Egypt, beginning with Alexander the Great's arrival in Egypt in 332 bce and ending with the Roman conquest in 30 bce. Within these three centuries, there is a differentiation between the period under the kings of the Macedonian dynasty (332-304 bce) and that of the Ptolemaic pharaohs (304-30 bce, the Ptolemaic period in the strict sense). http://www.oxfordreference.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/view/10.1093/acref/9780195102345.001.0001/acref-9780195102345-e-0586?rskey=DPugpl&result=1

Step Pyramid

The Pyramid of Djoser (or Djeser and Zoser), or step pyramid (kbhw-ntrw in Egyptian) is an archeological remain in the Saqqara necropolis, Egypt, northwest of the city of Memphis. It was built during the 27th century BC for the burial of Pharaoh Djoser by his vizier, Imhotep. It is the central feature of a vast mortuary complex in an enormous courtyard surrounded by ceremonial structures and decoration. This first Egyptian pyramid consisted of six mastabas (of decreasing size) built atop one another in what were clearly revisions and developments of the original plan. The pyramid originally stood 62 metres (203 ft) tall, with a base of 109 m × 125 m (358 ft × 410 ft) and was clad in polished white limestone.[2] The step pyramid (or proto-pyramid) is considered to be the earliest large-scale cut stone construction.

Sinuhe

The Story of Sinuhe is preserved in five Middle Kingdom manuscripts, including two from Thebes, and more than twenty New Kingdom copies, including scribal exercises, which present slightly different versions of the text. The text is complete; the number of surviving manuscripts is high for a fictional narrative, suggesting that Sinuhe was highly regarded. The earliest manuscript is the Theban Papyrus Berlin 3022, from the second half of the twelfth dynasty. The story's setting and eulogistic elements may suggest that it was composed shortly after the end of the reign of Senwosret I. It is approximately 570 metrical lines of verse long. The narrative is introduced as the funerary autobiography of Sinuhe, a courtier whose service began under Amenemhet I. The following first-person narrative includes a particularly wide range of other genres, including ritual songs and dramatic monologues. It is written in verse, with high-flown diction, and in a self-consciously fine style which is consistently varied, subtle, and resonant. The forty stanzas can be divided into five thematic sections. In the first section of the tale, the expected pattern of a courtier's ideal life is shattered when Sinuhe overhears of the sudden death of Amenemhet I, and he flees abroad, where he eventually establishes himself in the Palestinian kingdom of Retjenu. The second section is occupied by his conversation with the ruler of Retjenu, Amunenshi, in which he affirms and extols the glory of the new king, Senwosret I. In the central section he tells how success abroad under Amunenshi's favor failed to bring him happiness, and the fourth section comprises an exchange of letters between Senwosret I and Sinuhe, in which the latter is exonerated from blame for his flight and is summoned back to Egypt. The final section recounts his homecoming with a lyrical ritual in the royal court, in which he is reestablished and reborn as a true Egyptian. The mock-inscription concludes as he is buried in the royal necropolis.

Medinet Habu

The area adjoining the cultivation at the southern end of the Theban Necropolis (25°44′N, 32°35′E). Medinet Habu's most conspicuous standing monument is the great memorial temple of Ramesses III (r. 1198-1166 bce). On the grounds of this complex, however, are numerous other structures, most notably the so-called small temple (built in stages, from the mid-eighteenth dynasty until the second century ce) and the memorial chapels of the divine votaresses of Amun (twenty-fifth dynasty and twenty-sixth).

Tanis 21st, 23rd Dynasty

The capital, royal cemetery and principal Mediterranean port of Egypt (31°N, 32°E) during the Third Intermediate Period (c.1081-711 bce). Its role as a great metropolis was brief, for it had little history before that period and declined thereafter.

Hierakonpolis

The city was the major cult center of the god Horus, to whom every king of Egypt was assimilated and whose sacred bird figured in its later Greek name, Hierakonpolis ("city of the falcon"). The enormous growth of the settlement in late predynastic times (c.3500 bce) testifies to the importance of Hierakonpolis as a regional center of power, possibly as the capital of an early, pre-unification kingdom.

Hatshepsut (pharaoh) Ruled 1502-1482 BCE 18th Dynasty, fifth king New Kingdom

The daughter of Thutmose I and Queen Ahmose, Hatshepsut married her half brother, the future Thutmose II and produced one child, Neferure. After the premature death of Thutmose II, his son from a union with another woman, Isis, was crowned as Thutmose III, who possibly married Neferure to gain legitimacy. Since Thutmose III and Neferure were both children at Thutmose II's death, the king's "Great Wife" Hatshepsut ruled Egypt as regent. From two to seven years later, she assumed full power and crowned herself "king," using all royal titles. To vindicate her claim to the throne, the priests made use of a story of divine birth: the god Amun visited Queen Ahmose in the guise of her husband and begot Hatshepsut. She acted as king and frequently posed and dressed as a man. Hatshepsut sent military expeditions to Nubia and Syria-Palestine, yet her reign is better remembered for the high quality of its architecture and art. She was devoted to building temples and presented herself as the restorer of what "had been dismembered." Her building program affected Thebes, provincial towns, and localities outside Egyptian territory, such as Buhen in Nubia and the Wadi Mughara in the Sinai. Her most important edifices are located in central Karnak where she erected two groups of chambers and the sanctuary now called the Red Chapel, in ancient times known as the Palace of Maat, which referred to the concept of truth and justice basic to Egyptian religion. The best-known building completed during Hatshepsut's reign is her mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri, bearing a series of wall reliefs representing the most important achievements of her reign: the expedition to Punt undertaken in Year 9 under the treasurer Nehesi that depicts the return with exotic goods, and the quarrying, transport, and erection of a pair of obelisks in Year 16. Hatshepsut built two tombs during her reign. The first, left unfinished, was prepared when she was still Thutmose I's "Great Wife." The second tomb—the longest and deepest in Egypt—was probably first begun in the Valley of the Kings for Thutmose I (tomb 20 in the Valley of the Kings). Two quartzite sarcophagi were found there; both were made for Hatshepsut, although one was altered for Thutmose I. After Hatshepsut's death, Thutmose III, already a grown man, continued her building program. He enlarged and decorated many of her monuments, though he replaced some with his own buildings. After Year 42 of his reign, for unknown reasons, the name of Hatshepsut was erased from all monuments and her memory obliterated: her statues were smashed, her representations in wall reliefs were destroyed, and screen walls were built around her obelisks between the fourth and fifth pylons in Karnak. The names of three Thutmoside kings replaced Hatshepsut's. In the later king lists the queen was omitted, and only long and painstaking Egyptological research revealed her existence and accomplishments.

Ahmose son of Ibana (officer)

The details of this campaign (to drive the Hyksos out of Northern Egypt) are recorded in the biographical texts inscribed in the tombs of two officers who fought under him (both also named Ahmose): Ahmose, son of Ebana, and Ahmose Pennekheb. The testimonies of the two officers previously mentioned give evidence of the great respect that his soldiers had for their king (who was only about twenty years old at the time of his victory).

Nefertiti (queen)

The earliest attestations of Nefertiti's existence show her accompanying her husband as he performed both official and religious duties. She played an unprecedented role in the decorative program of the temples built by Akhenaten for Aten's worship at Karnak during the earlier Theban phase of his reign. Nefertiti's preeminent status in Akhenaten's harem was signaled not only by a series of titles and epithets that are exclusively hers but also by other royal markers. Among his wives, only Nefertiti wore crowns and only she was entitled to have a uraeus at her brow. Aten, too, was known to be partial to Nefertiti; she is the only person, other than Akhenaten, who received life from the god and who was fondled by Aten's hands. In return, she was often shown actively worshiping the sun disk. Some depictions of Nefertiti show her with attributes and in contexts normally associated only with the ruler, which has led to scholarly questions about her role in the politics of the period. In the post-Amarna period, figures of Nefertiti and texts naming her were attacked, perhaps not to destroy her image but concomitantly with the persecution of Akhenaten's memory.

Babylon

The fall of Babylon to Persia in 539 bce signaled the end of the great, native powers of Mesopotamia; this was followed soon after by Persia's expansion and defeat of Egypt in 525 bce .

Merenptah's Victory (a.k.a. Israel) Stela

The fame of the king is due to the unique mention of Israel in Egyptian sources, which occurs on the Victory Stela once placed in Merenptah's mortuary temple at Thebes (now in the Cairo Museum). In this report, the Libyan defeat is followed by the capture of Palestinian cities and the devastation of Israel. Scenes presumed to illustrate that campaign and attributed to his reign, actually belong to a cycle of scenes depicting episodes from the Near Eastern wars of Ramesses II. Recent scholarship agrees that Merenptah is not the pharaoh of the biblical Book of Exodus.

Semna Despatches

The kings of the early Middle Kingdom (2040-1750 BC), and in particular Senwosret I (1965-1920 BC), undertook a programme of expansion into Nubia. The entire area as far south as the Second Cataract (near modern Wadi Halfa) was soon under Egyptian control. Egyptian rule remained until at least to the end of the Twelfth Dynasty (about 1795 BC). Control was centred around a series of forts placed at strategic locations along the Nile. The forts had several purposes: to protect and supervise trade on the Nile, to act as a very visible reminder of the Egyptian presence in the region, and to monitor the tribes of the Western Desert and possible hostile incursions.The texts, found with other papyri in a Middle Kingdom tomb under the Ramesseum (the mortuary temple of Ramesses II at Thebes) in 1896, are detailed administrative records, probably mainly originating mainly from the fort of Semna on the southern border. They record the arrival and departure of various groups of Nubians, and include the reports of various surveillance parties who were tracking in the desert. The texts show that the Egyptians carefully monitored the movement of people and controlled trading activities.

Nagada

The large mastaba (54 × 27 meters/165 × 85 feet) is 2.4 kilometers (1.5 miles) south of Naqada, on the edge of the desert. It has a niched, palace-façade and includes many subsidiary rooms with numerous grave offerings.

Tutankhamun (king) Ruled 1355-1346 BCE 18th Dynasty, eleventh king New Kingdom

The last of that dynasty whose consaguineous ties to the royal family are beyond doubt. Born at Amarna, he was first called Tutankhaten ("living image of [the sun god] Aten"), a name documenting an intimate association with Akhenaten (r. 1372-1355 bce), who in all probability was his father. Information is lacking about Tutankhamun's mother, but since no document from his reign names her, she may be presumed to have died before his accession. He ascended the throne as a child. The representations and texts on the gold throne found in the tomb prove that Tutankhamun's queen was Akhenaten's and Nefertiti's third daughter Ankhesenpaaten. The names of the royal couple in the inscriptions on the throne were altered in antiquity to read "Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun," in conformity with the policy that restored Amun to the preeminence that he had enjoyed among the gods before Akhenaten's "revolution." Tutankhamun has often been considered a relatively unimportant ruler and his reign has been dismissed, yet the monuments tell another story. During the decade in which he occupied the throne, extensive restoration was undertaken to repair damage inflicted on Amun's cult in the iconoclastic phase of Akhenaten's reign. Simultaneously, the first official attacks on Akhenaten's memory occurred. Such policy decisions, as reflected in the alteration of the king's name from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamun, were taken early in his reign, perhaps as early as the brief period between the death and burial of his predecessor, Smenkhkare. Tutankhamun's extreme youth precludes attributing the initiative for those moves to the king himself; undoubtedly, both the "God's Father" Ay (r. 1346-1343 bce) and General Horemheb (r. 1343-1315 bce), who succeeded Tutankhamun, played major roles in the politics of the period, but whether as allies or rivals is not known. During Tutankhamun's first regnal year, the court and administration were moved from Akhetaten (Amarna) to Memphis. Tutankhamun was in residence there when a decree was issued in his name to refurbish and re-endow the temples neglected during Akhenaten's reign. Howard Carter's discovery of his tomb in 1922 was one of the most spectacular archaeological finds of the twentieth century.

Cambyses (Persian king) ? - 522 BCE

The last pharaoh of the twenty-sixth dynasty, Psamtik III (526-525 bce), was conquered and captured by the Persian king Cambyses, son of Cyrus II, after the Battle of Pelusium in 525 bce. Egypt, together with Cyprus and Phoenicia, then formed the sixth satrapy of the Persian Empire. The satrap (Pers., "protector of the reign"), who represented the king of Persia, resided at Memphis with his chancellery. Cambyses assumed a pharaonic guise, as indicated by autobiographical texts of Wedjahorresenet, a high official and court doctor. With Cambyses II, the First Persian Occupation began Egypt's twenty-seventh dynasty, and it includes Darius I (r. 521-486 bce), Xerxes (r. 486-465 bce), Artaxerxes I (r. 465-424 bce), Darius II (r. 423-405 bce), and Artaxerxes II (405-359 bce). The Greek historian Herodotus traveled in Egypt about 450 bce, so the Egypt he described was a Persian satrapy. Egyptian hatred of Cambyses, referred to by the Greeks (Herodotus 3.27-38; Diodorus Siculus 1.46; Strabo 107.27; Plutarch On Isis and Osiris 44), derived not only from the impact of the military conquests but also from the resentment of the Egyptian clergy to Cambyses' decree limiting the royal concessions to the temples (Demotic Papyrus 215, verso, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris). The three military expeditions on which he embarked (against Carthage, the oasis of the Libyan desert, and Nubia) were serious failures. Cambyses died in 522 bce in Syria on his way home.

Limestone

The most important stone used in ancient Egypt. From the earliest dynasties, limestone was widely utilized, owing to its widespread occurrence in and around the Nile Valley and the surrounding deserts. Ease of quarrying and carving, the ability of harder forms to accept a polish, and its structural strength allowed it to be used for the construction of large buildings—pyramids and temples. The world's first large-scale structures, the Old Kingdom pyramid complex of Djoser, was constructed entirely of limestone. Limestone continued to be the preferred stone into the early New Kingdom, when it was gradually replaced by sandstone (Clark and Engelbach 1930, pp. 12f). Present-day experiments have demonstrated that Egyptian workers could easily quarry and sculpt limestone with copper tools, whereas hard stones, such as granite, basalt, or quartzite required working with stone tools.

Wenamun

The principal character of a literary text written in Late Egyptian. On paleographic evidence, the manuscript dates from the twenty-first dynasty. The text itself was presumably composed early in that dynasty (mid-eleventh century BCE). The report starts with the departure of Wenamun, an agent of the temple of Amun at Thebes acting on behalf of the high priest, Herihor, for the Phoenician harbor town of Byblos to procure timber for a new river bark of Amun. The date is placed within "Year 5," and is traditionally associated with the "Renaissance," which began in regnal year 19 of Ramesses XI, the last king of the twentieth dynasty. Alternatively, the date may belong to the fifth year of the twenty-first dynasty, if Herihor was the successor of Piankh (Egberts 1998, pp. 49-74). This sequence would account for the absence of an Egyptian pharaoh in Wenamun, because in the twenty-first dynasty, Egypt was divided into a southern entity with el-Hiba as northern outpost headed by the high priests of Amun, and a northern entity ruled by Smendes of Tanis and his successors. Smendes figures in Wenamun as the first sovereign visited by its protagonist. Wenamun's next stop is the harbor town of Dor (present Tell Dor, Israel), where he is robbed of his valuables. When he reaches Byblos, Wenamun is forced to stay there for nearly a year; after that he flees to Cyprus. At that point the text breaks off. The narrative's core is constituted of two disputes between Wenamun and Zakarbaal, the ruler of Byblos. In the first dispute, Zakarbaal is unwilling to deliver the timber without proper payment, dismissing Wenamun's demand for political obedience as a vassal of Egypt. Then Wenamun argues that Amun is the universal god, whose domain includes Byblos and the Lebanon. The second dispute involves, among other things, the issue of Egyptian ethnicity. Like Sinuhe, Wenamun is a remnant of the ancient Egyptian discourse about cultural identity. At the same time, Wenamun constitutes a major source for the theocratic ideology of the twenty-first dynasty, in which the role of the pharaoh is assigned to Amun. By stressing the cross-cultural significance of Amun and integrating international politics into theology, the unknown author of Wenamun shows his audience a way of coping with the decline of the empire and the resulting division of Egypt.

Deir el Medina

The site is chiefly known for the remains of a settlement that was founded in the early eighteenth dynasty (second half of the sixteenth century bce), to house the workmen who constructed and decorated the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings and in the Valley of the Queens. The settlement was inhabited by the necropolis workmen and their families until the end of the twentieth dynasty (shortly after 1100 bce). During the Ramessid era, the number of workmen was normally between forty and seventy. In the Late period, Deir el-Medina was used as a cemetery. Ptolemy IV and later kings built a temple, dedicated to the goddess Hathor, to the north of the village, on the site formerly occupied by the Ramessid temples and chapels. Among the remains of one of the houses next to the temple, Schiaparelli found two jars, containing fifty-three Greek and Demotic papyri from the second century bce that were related to a family of priests officiating in the Hathor temple. Other archaeological remains in the vicinity are a Middle Kingdom tomb, the tombs of the Saite princesses Ankhnesneferibre and Nitokris, and the Coptic monastery (built within the Ptolemaic temple precinct) that gave the site its present name.

Merenptah (king) Ruled 1237-1226 BCE 19th Dynasty, fourth king New Kingdom

The thirteenth son and successor of Ramesses II. Having assumed high military functions during his father's reign, he became heir to the throne after the death of his elder brothers. He was middle aged on his accession and reigned for about ten years. Merenptah's reign is marked by the invasion of the Libyans who were bound in a coalition with the Sea Peoples; Merenptah successfully repelled these groups in his fifth regnal year. Reports of the victory have been inscribed on columns and stelae in Egypt and Nubia. The confederacy of western foes, mainly Lebu and Meshwesh, also included newcomers from the Mediterranean—the Sea Peoples, comprising the Akawash, Turash, Luka, Shardana, and Shekelesh. The battle took place at Pi-yer, on the western border of the Nile Delta, and ended with the triumph of the Egyptian army. Six thousand soldiers were slain, and nine thousand prisoners taken. The chief of the Libyans fled, members of his family were captured, and a great booty was seized by the Egyptians. The fame of the king is due to the unique mention of Israel in Egyptian sources, which occurs on the Victory Stela once placed in Merenptah's mortuary temple at Thebes (now in the Cairo Museum). In this report, the Libyan defeat is followed by the capture of Palestinian cities and the devastation of Israel. Scenes presumed to illustrate that campaign and attributed to his reign, actually belong to a cycle of scenes depicting episodes from the Near Eastern wars of Ramesses II. Recent scholarship agrees that Merenptah is not the pharaoh of the biblical Book of Exodus.

*Harkhuf

The tomb of Harkhuf has a lengthy text recording several expeditions in the sixth dynasty, including the text of a letter from the youthful pharaoh Pepy II (r. 2300-2206 bce ), which told Harkhuf to ensure the safe delivery of a pygmy to the royal residence. The annals of the merchant Horkhuf have indicated that Wawat, Irtjet and Setju were on occasion independent entities; at other times, they formed part of a single political unit under one ruler. Although the rulers of those states were in a position to tax or otherwise hinder Egyptian trading ventures—testifying to their power—still, they were forced to acknowledge the military might of their southern neighbor, Yam. Horkhuf has informed us that on his return from the south he was escorted, presumably through Lower Nubia, by soldiers provided by the king of Yam.

Beni Hassan

The upper necropolis at Beni Hasan consists of about forty large rectangular or square chambers cut straight back into the hill. Here were buried the nomarchs (provincial governors) and other important civil leaders of the nome (from the Greek word nomos, for "province").

Thebes 11th, 13th, 17th - 19th Dynasties

Thebes became the capital of Egypt during parts of the eleventh dynasty and during the New Kingdom. The site of Thebes includes areas on both sides of the Nile: On the eastern bank, the city of Waset had the two main temples of Upper Egypt during the New Kingdom, the temple of Karnak in the north and the temple of Luxor in the south; on the western bank, large private and royal cemeteries, as well as numerous temple complexes, extended over an area of more than 4 kilometers (2.4 miles) in length and 0.5-1 kilometer (about a quarter to a half mile) in width. The great number of monuments, many exceptionally well preserved, make the Theban area the largest and most important archaeological site in Egypt.

Sea Peoples

This evocative name has been adopted by modern historians from occasional Egyptian usage in order to describe neatly a number of different groups involved in a bewildering migration around and across the Mediterranean Sea over a period of at least fifty years in the later twelfth and early eleventh centuries bce. This was accompanied by widespread destruction of individual settlements and the collapse of wider political entities from Greece to the Levant. Its causes are still poorly understood, but there is no doubt that it ranks among the most significant and formative episodes in the history of the eastern Mediterranean, since it marked the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age. Egypt, on the southern periphery of this movement, was affected less than more northerly areas. Although the attempted invasions of the country by the Sea Peoples presented a major challenge to the pharaohs of the nineteenth and twentieth dynasties, and the successful repulsion of them was recorded in detail, the impact of the Sea Peoples on Egypt in the longer term was insignificant compared to that of the Libyan tribes with whom they were at times allied. Our knowledge of the Sea Peoples, insofar as Egypt is concerned, derives primarily from the textual and pictorial records carved in the reigns of Merenptah (c.1237-1226 bce) and Ramesses III (c.1198-1166 bce). This can be supplemented by scattered references in other inscriptions and papyri, notably Ramesses II's accounts of the Battle of Qadesh and a literary text, the Story of Wenamun. Although the possibly quite diverse origins of the different groups that made up the Sea Peoples are not known with any certainty, there is a broad consensus that they came mainly from the Aegean and Anatolia, and archaeological discoveries increasingly suggest that upheavals in the Mycenaean world lay behind their abandonment of their native countries. Attempts to relate them to particular geographical areas rely largely on resemblances between the names they bear in Egyptian texts and names known from other, especially Hittite and Classical, sources. For example, the Sherden/Shardana have been linked with Sardinia—either as their original homeland or as the place where some of them eventually settled—on the basis of the similar consonantal structure of the two words, but a connection with Sardis has also been mooted. It is likewise proposed that the island of Sicily got its name from the Shekelesh. Connections with the Greek world have been reinforced by suggestions that the Akawasha are Achaeans, while the Denyen should be equated with the Danaoi, or mainland Greeks. We can be certain only that the Peleset, wherever they came from originally, settled in the Levant as the people we know today as the Philistines. For this group alone among the Sea Peoples has it been possible through archaeology—and despite the derogatory caricature of them created in early Israelite texts—to reconstruct their sophisticated material culture. Precisely what caused this enormous upheaval is also unknown. Famine has often been invoked by way of explanation, and prolonged crop failure certainly could have led to wholesale migration in search of food. A shortage in Anatolia seems to be indicated by Merenptah's sending of grain to the Hittites, although this might only have been a temporary measure. A marked rise in the price of grain in Egypt in the twentieth dynasty has also been noted in this context. Again, this is an insufficient basis from which to extrapolate a crop failure in regions far distant, and the price rise in any case postdates the invasions of the Sea Peoples. Another idea recently mooted is that a volcanic explosion in Iceland may have played a part, but the tree-ring dating of this eruption to 1159 bce—probably just after the reign of Ramesses III had ended—would seem to make this also too late to have been a major factor. In fact, archaeological evidence for widespread climatic change is largely lacking, and political and military strife in the Mycenaean world may well have been the main catalyst. The two actual invasions of Egypt that are known to us occurred about forty years apart, in Year 5 of Merenptah's reign and Year 8 of Ramesses III. Since these were separated by a civil war lasting some twenty years, it is quite possible that there were others, which went unrecorded or the record of which has not survived. http://www.oxfordreference.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/view/10.1093/acref/9780195102345.001.0001/acref-9780195102345-e-0643?rskey=6shZ8W&result=1

Khufu (king) Ruled 2609-2584 BCE Fourth Dynasty, second king Old Kingdom

Very little is known about Khufu (called Cheops in Greek), although he built the most famous tomb in pharaonic Egypt—the Great Pyramid at Giza, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The Turin Canon ascribes to him a reign of twenty-three years, but it may have been much longer. He succeeded his father, Sneferu; his mother was Queen Hetepheres I; and he had three wives. Only one statue of Khufu—a small figurine found at Abydos—has survived, but his name is preserved in inscriptions from various sites in Egypt, Sinai, and Byblos. Khufu's most important achievement was the building of the Great Pyramid ("The Horizon of Khufu") at a new site, the Giza plateau. Members of the royal family were buried in small pyramids and tombs to the east of the Great Pyramid and officials of the reign to the west. A cult pyramid was discovered to the southeast of Khufu's tomb. The design program of the entire pyramid complex continued to be used until the end of the Old Kingdom. He organized households and estates from various parts of Egypt to supply the labor, as well as the food, clothing, and housing for the workers. In essence, the building of the Great Pyramid was a national project that must have had a significant socializing effect on the conscripted labor brought to Giza from the hamlets and villages of Egypt. The discovery of the workers' town revealed support facilities, residential areas, and cemeteries for those who constructed and maintained the pyramid complex. From an architectural point of view, the pyramid reveals not only the brilliance and skills of the "Overseer of All the King's Works" and his architects but also the ancient Egyptian achievements in engineering, astronomy, mathematics, and art.

Giza

When Sneferu, first king of the fourth dynasty (r. 2649-2609 bce) died at Dahshur and was buried in his recently completed third pyramid there, his son Khufu (better known under his Greek name Cheops) succeeded. No convenient place remained at Dahshur for his planned Great Pyramid, so Khufu moved his court and residence farther north, where his prospectors had located a commanding rock cliff (overlooking present-day Giza) appropriate for a towering pyramid; this rock cliff was in the northern-most part of the first Lower Egyptian nome, Ineb-hedj ("the white fortress"), which later became the capital city of Memphis. When Khufu (r. 2609-2584 bce) planned his own ambitious pyramid, which was to reach an unrivaled height of nearly three hundred Old Egyptian cubits, he was looking for a solid rock base, nearby quarries, and a dominating position overlooking the Nile Valley. This he found at Giza, the nearest place combining these features. The high plateau of Giza was not virgin ground; it was occupied by a necropolis, with large mastaba tombs of princes and high officials lining the high cliffs. Those in the north and east were cleared away, their shafts filled or even totally destroyed during the quarrying for Khufu's pyramid. Only those on the hills to the far south were left undisturbed. The large pyramid precinct was named Akhet-Khufu ("the Western Horizon of Khufu"). Besides the pyramid and the temples, it included the royal palace, administrative buildings, and the pyramid city (with the mansions of the royal princes and highest officials, and the houses of priests, artists, and architects). The royal palace and the pyramid city are probably hidden under several meters of Nile deposits, beneath the present-day village of Nazlet es-Sissi, much farther to the east than has been assumed. The workmen lived far from the exclusive residential city, in barracks to the south. Khufu's pyramid is oriented almost exactly to truth north, with a minor deviation of only 5 minutes. The pyramids of Khafre and Menkaure seem to be aligned by a diagonal that touches the corners of all three pyramids. After Djedefre's early death, another son of Khufu, Khafkhufu, ascended to the throne; he modified his name to Khafre (Khephren; r. 2576-2551 bce). His pyramid is the only one built by a successor of Khufu that was truly completed; it was intended to match his father's in height or even to outdo it. To economize on construction, Khafre reduced the length of the sides of the base but chose a slightly higher site and a steeper angle of slope. Thus, although the pyramid's mass was smaller than that of Khufu, its height seemed greater—which was apparently the desired effect—and Khafre could name his pyramid "Khafre is the Greatest." The third pyramid at Giza, the pyramid of Menkaure, is remarkably small, although it had a casing of sixteen courses of red Aswan granite. Menkaure (r. 2551-2523 bce) had a long and peaceful reign and there is no evidence of an economic crisis during it, so the reasons for the reduction of the height and mass of his pyramid must be sought elsewhere.

Hattusili (Hittite king)

With the exception of three interesting but relatively uninformative letters from the Tell el-Amarna archive, nearly all the extant correspondence between the Hittite and Egyptian royal courts consists of cuneiform letters found at the capital of Hattusas (modern Bogazköy), dating to the reigns of Hattusilis III and Ramesses II . The stela from Beth-Shan (northern Canaan) of Year 18 may reflect a political crisis between Egypt and the Hittites over the custody of the young Hittite king, Urhi-Tesup (Mursil III), who had fled to Egypt some time after being dethroned by Hattusilis III. Yet within three years, facing worse problems with Assyria, Hattusilis was happy to make a peace treaty with Ramesses II (also war-weary) in Year 21. When the alliance matured into friendship, Hattusilis III married off two of his daughters to Ramesses II, the first in Year 34 and the second a decade or so later, with great celebrations and poetical inscriptions. In the meantime, Egyptian physicians served regularly at the Hittite court, attending the Hittite royal family.

Deir el Bahri

a valley on the western bank of the Nile River, near Thebes, an archaeological site of tombs and temples. The first monument built at the site was a Middle Kingdom terraced temple, now in ruins, of Nebhepetre Montuhotep I of the eleventh dynasty; it consisted of a central, altarlike element that rose above the ambulatory; all was surrounded by a portico. Under the main structure, a cenotaph for the king was found, containing an empty sarcophagus and a now-famous statue of Montuhotep I swathed in linen. The entrance to the corridor leading to the sarcophagus was located in the temple's courtyard. Behind the main structure, a court was located, which lay before a columned hall and sanctuary. From that court, a long, sloping passage led to the rock-cut tomb of the king, a granite chamber with an empty calcite (Egyptian alabaster) shrine for a sarcophagus. During the New Kingdom, the procession of the Valley festival gained importance, and Amenhotpe I built a brick shrine to the north of the terraced temple, probably as a bark-chapel. That building was dismantled when the temple of Hatshepsut was being constructed, since it occupied the entire northern half of the site; her temple followed the lines of the older edifice, but it was larger and more complex. The terraced building, with its three levels of porticoes, was partly hewn in the cliff, and it was provided with long ramps that led from level to level. In the courtyard in front of the temple, trees were planted and papyrus reeds grew in small pools. A long processional alley leading to the temple was lined with sphinxes, while other sphinxes and statues of the queen decorated the temple. The walls were covered with polychrome reliefs, the most famous depicting the divine birth of the queen, the expedition to Punt, and the transportation of two obelisks from Aswan to Karnak.

Karnak

an ancient site whose name derives from that of a nearby village, refers to a large complex of temples on the eastern bank of the Nile River at Luxor (ancient Thebes) in Upper Egypt (25°43′N, 32°40′E). Early in the twelfth dynasty, Egyptian rulers who had originated in the Theban area inaugurated what was perhaps the first shrine on the site of Karnak. By the New Kingdom, the eighteenth dynasty pharaohs made Thebes the center of the Egyptian empire and Karnak the center of the cult of Amun (the principal divine sponsor and protector of the empire, with his consort Mut, their son Khonsu, and the Theban war god Montu).

Megiddo

present-day Tell el-Mutesellim, an imposing 18-acre site near the southwestern corner of the Plain of Esdraelon (Greek for Jezreel Valley) of northern Israel. The tell guards the northern opening of the Wadi Ara (Nahal Iron) through the Carmel Ridge, thus controlling the principal military and commercial highway connecting Egypt and the Near East in antiquity (called by the Romans, the Via Maris). The site is also astride a major north-south road that leads from Akko inland to Jerusalem. Megiddo was the center of an important Canaanite city-state in the mid-second millennium bce. Its capture became the strategic objective of Thutmose III's first Near Eastern campaign in the early fifteenth century bce; a coalition of Canaanite forces headed by the princes of Kadesh and Megiddo then banded together for defense. The campaign, known in considerable detail from the king's Annals and his topographical lists at Karnak, as well as from a stela found at Gebel Barkal in northern Sudan, included both the defeat of a Canaanite chariot force outside Megiddo and a seven-month siege. Megiddo ultimately surrendered and, for the next three centuries, become an important Egyptian stronghold. Megiddo remained an important Egyptian military and administrative center during the nineteenth and early twentieth dynasties.