Ancient Egypt consisted of 2 regions, Upper and Lower Egypt. King Menes united the lands of Upper and Lower Egypt. The civilisation of ancient Egypt grew up on the banks of the Nile Rive to last about 3, 000 years, divided into 3 main periods.

In the Old Kingdom (2778 to 2260 BCE) the capital city is Memphis in northern Egypt. The pyramids were built during this time. Following a period of turmoil, the Middle Kingdom (2160 to 1785 BCE) emerged, reunited by a prince from Thebes in Southern Egypt.

Egypt was occupied by the Hyksos people from 1640 to 1552 BCE. After they were driven out or destroyed, the Egyptian civilisation reached a high point of power and wealth during the New Kingdom (1580 to 1085 BCE).

From 1085, however, Egypt was invaded by a series of foreign powers including Assyria (661 BCE), Persia (525 BCE), Macedon, under Alexander the Great (332 BCE), and finally by the Romans (30 BCE.

The Lower and Upper Egypt were first reinited by Menes, king heir of Horus (the sky god and protector of the ruler of Egypt).

When the central power was weak and ineffective, the nomarchs often enlarged and embellished their provincial capitals. From there, they could supervise the maintenance of irrigation canals and dams, the local distribution of water and the dispensation of justice. These provincial capitals were also religious and economic centres which served the country side.

The lands beyond the first cataract belonged to Nubia, conquered during the Old Kingdom and administrated by a vice-roy.

2.1 The Nomes

Nomes are Ancient Egyptian sectors who worshiped and represented one Deitie. There were approximately 20 nomes in Lower Egypt and 22 in Upper Egypt. The nomes of Lower Egypt were ruled by nomarchs. Here are where some important cities are located in the different nomes of Ancient Egypt:

In the first Nome (1a and 1b) of Lower Egypt, The White Fortress, Memphis and its necropolis, Saqqara, were located. The solar temple Absurir was a few kilometres from Saqqara (1a).

The 3rd Nome of lower Egypt is named West. Its main cities were: Hermopolis, 3a and Alexandria, 3b.

Heliopolis was located in the 13th nome of lower Egypt. This Nome was the cult centre of Re-harakhty, the bull Mnevis and Hathor. (13)

Avaris was located in the 19th nome of Lower Egypt (19a). It was the capital of ancient Egypt under the Hyksos.

Thebes were located in the 4th nome, The sceptre of Upper Egypt at 4a.

Memphis is located at the pick of the Delta and 18 from Cairo (back then was the city Fustat). Its God is Ptah, the craftsmen's god. The temple of Ptah, the palace of Apries, and two huge statues of Ramses II (1301 to 1235 BCE) are some of the most important monuments found in that site. The favourite burial place for Pharaohs was near Memphis, in the necropolis of Sakkara. A line of Pyramids extends 32 km to Giza. Memphis became the seat of the Persian Satraps in the year 525 BCE.

The name used today derives from the Pyramid of Pepy. Memphis is a Greek translation but its original name was Ineb-Hedj meaning "The White Wall".

Traditions tell us that Menes founded the city by building dikes to protect it from the flooding of the Nile. Afterwards, this great city of the Old Kingdom became the administrated and religious centre of Ancient Egypt. When Herodotus visited the city in the 5th Century BCE, when the Persians occupied the city, he found many Greeks, Jews, Phoenicians and Libyans among the population. The city must have been huge from the size of its necropolis which extended 19 miles along the west bank of the Nile. That includes Dahshure, Saqqara, Abusir, Zawyet, El-Aryan, Giza, and Abu Rawash which names come from modern nearby communities, not from their origins. Back in Ancient Egypt, there were many fine monuments in Memphis, but now, it all lies in ruins or underneath cultivated fields, Nile silt and local villages. But what we know about Memphis comes from its necropolis, text and papyrus from other parts of Egypt and from Herodotus, the greek historian who visited the city in 6th century BCE.

What happened to the city is still not very clear. In later dynasties, Thebes became the capital city of Egypt but Memphis retained much of its religious significance. Memphis, not Thebes, was actually the administrative center of Ancient Egypt.

But the Greeks came and moved the capital city to Alexandria where they built the first lighthouse on the Island of Faros, near a port and a temple of Isis. Since the Greeks moved the capital, Memphis suffered, and with the entrance of Christianity and the decline of the Egyptian religion, the city became a mere shadow of the former Great City. The actual demise occurred when the Muslims invaded and established the new capital a short distance north of Fustat which is now a part of Cairo.

It is believed that Ptah, the god of craftsman, was the principle pagan God worshipped in Memphis. The temple of Ptah, which is now in ruins, was probably one of the greatest temples of Ancient Egypt. The ruins were excavated by the famous Egyptologist, W.M. Flinders Petrie Between 1908 and 1913. Ramses II is well represented here, with a colossus of himself near the Alabaster Sphinx along the southern enclosure wall.

The City was settled in antiquity. This is the site of the six Great Pyramids of Giza, and the Great Sphinx to the south. The city has been a heavily trafficked sightseeing area for centuries.

Avaris is at the northeastern part of the Delta. This city was the capital of the Kyksos kings of the second Intermediate Period. This fortified city was built over another city of the Middle Kingdom they had conquered. Then, Avaris was captured by Ahmose I. Ahmose I is the pharaoh who put an end to the Hyksos and founded the 18th Dynasty.

Heliopolis, as it is in Greek, the city of Heliopolis is thought to be the seat of a Sun God. The name of this city, in Egyptian, is known as Iunu and to the Herbrews as On. Its major Deity is Ra, the active force of the sun who sails the sky in his bark during the day and defeats the terrors of the Underworld at night.

Known to the Egyptians as "The City of the Eight". It was named that way because it was the cult center of the Ogdoad, the eight primeveal deities who created the world, according to one of several Egyptians traditions. Hermopolis is the seat of the god of wisdom and learning, the ibis-headed moon-god Thoth. Hermopolis was located on the west bank of the Nile and about midway from Memphis and Thebes, right across Akhetaten. Hermopolis was the center of a heavy populated area that extended to the Libyan desert.

Luxor and Karnak now occupy this site. The city developed from small villages. The city served as a reservoir for the immense wealth that poured in from the conquered countries. As the empire began to decline, the city went with it. Thebes was sacked by the Assyrians in the year 661 BCE, an event refferred in the bible (Nah. 3.8-10). Then, the Romans sacked the city in the year 29 BCE. By 20 BCE, a Greek visitor to the site reported only a few scattered villages. The temples and tombs that have survived, including the tombs of Tutankhamen and of Ramses II's sons, are among the most splendid in the world, and the site has been the scene of much important archaeological work.

Luxor is located in central Egypt on the east side of the Nile River; 1.6 km SW of Karnak and occupies part of the site of Thebes. The greatest monument in the city is the Temple of Luxor. It was built in the reign of Amenhotep III (1414 B.C.-1397 B.C.) as a temple to Amon. The temple is 230 m long. The temple was turned in a Christian Church and later in a shrine to a Muslim Saint. The temple was restored in 1883. Numerous temples and burial grounds, including the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, are nearby on the west side of the Nile.

Was the cult center of the god Min. The city was located on the east side of the Nile just to the north of the city of Abydos, which was in Upper Egypt. Queen Tiye, mother of Akhenaten, was probably born there and she had extensive estates nearby.

Deir el-Madina is a very special site: the site of workmen's villages. Its craftspeople built and decorated the tombs of the Pharaohs in the Valley of the kings. They were the members of a highly skilled community. This community passed on their knowledge of their trade from father to son. This lasted for many generations, beginning far back at the reign of Tuthmose I. There is a great deal of evidence of the lives of the workmen living here during the reigns of Ramesses II and his successors. The name "Deir el-Medina" means "the Convent of the Town" in Arabic, and was given because of the temple's final use by Coptic monks.

The main sources of information about people life come from the investigation of the rich primary sources descouvered in various archeological sites and descriptions given by ancient historians or travelers like Herodotus or Diodorus Siculus.

A new visitor to Egypt would be struck by the age of the people. Ancient Egyptians, like all mankind until the advent of modern medicine, died young. The life expectancy for one year olds was 40 years. Physicians of antiquity were many but they were powerless against Water-borne diseases, tuberculosis and other infectious illnesses. The very young and the old were prone to succumb. Malnutrition caused scurvy, anaemia and other diseases. Local famines could become countrywide. The famines would occur every few years despite the tries of the authorities to keep the distribution of food under control. Snakes, crocodiles and hippos where killing the unwary. Accidents, physical violence and a lifetime of hard work also took their toll. Funerals were frequent though because new-borns would frequently die at birth, which would make a third of the population, and women would die giving birth or from child fever. But according to Herodotus, the health of the Egyptians was one of the best of the antiquity compared to the other ancient civilisations.

Another thing it is known is that there was an unequal distribution of wealth. Many worked the fields, whether as a hired labourer or a peasant, not an occupation to make a person rich. Many households have servants or slaves.

The population of Egypt during the Old Kingdom was between 1 to 2 million. The population of Egypt only occupies 5% of the land modern Egypt has now. Over centuries, there was an influx of foreigners: Nubians, Canaanites, Israelites, and Jews. More peaceful was the presence of Phoenician traders in Lower Egypt probably since earliest times. Before the advent of the Greeks in Egypt, Phoenician ships carried much of Egyptian overseas trade and were never completely replaced by their European rivals. In the late dynasty period, the Libyans and Kushites conquer and settle and Ionians and Carians found colonies. The numbers of migrants was not very large to the population of ancient Egypt. Herodotus speaks of the Hermotybians having reached, at their peak, the number of 16 myriads (160,000) and the Calasirians 25 myriads.

During the reign of Amasis, it is said that Egypt became more prosperous than at any other time before.

For individual foreigners integration into Egyptian society seems to have been swift and unproblematical. More than 400 officials employed have been identified as Asiatics. There is no evidence that they were discriminated against, even if they retained some of their native culture such as foreign names. Diodorus Siculus (first half of the 1st century BCE) says that at the time he was in Egypt, those who kept the census returns of the population said that its free residents were mor than 3, 000. They also said that the king received from the revenues of the country more than 6, 000 talents.

1) The size of the dip during the First Intermediate Period is somewhat arbitrary.
2) It has been estimated that at the time of the Roman conquest between 7 and 9 million people lived in Egypt.

The ancient Egypt was one of the greatest and longest civilisationsin the world with an excellent administrative organisation.

1) http://www.encyclopedia.com
2) http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk
3) Le Petit Larousse Illustré
3) The Children's Atlas of Civilaziations by Antony Mason
4) Ancient Egypt, Eyewitness Books Series
5) Atlas of World History

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