History of Ancient Egypt
The more than 3000 year long history of Ancient Egypt has been divided into 8 or 9 periods, sometimes called Kingdoms. This modern-day division is somewhat arbitrarily based on the country's unity and wealth and the power of the central government. The Ancient Egyptians themselves did not group their rulers according to such criteria. They rather seem to have developed the notion of dynasties throughout their history. The Palermo Stone simply lists the kings one after the other, without any apparent need of grouping them. The Turin King list, which is more recent, has grouped the kings according to their discordance or origin. Thus, Amenemhat I and his descendants are described as the kings of Itj-Tawi, the capital whence they ruled.
We owe the division into 30 dynasties as we use it now to Manetho, an Egyptian priest who lived at the beginning of the Ptolemaic Era. In many cases, however, it is not clear why Manetho has grouped some kings into one dynasty and other kings into another. The 18th Dynasty, for instance, starts with Ahmose, a brother of the last king in Manetho's 17th Dynasty. Theoretically, Ahmose and Kamose should thus have been grouped in the same dynasty. Thutmosis I, on the other hand, does not appear to have been related to his predecessor, Amenhotep I, but still both kings are grouped in the 18th Dynasty.
Some Egyptologists have attempted to abandon the notions of Kingdoms and dynasties, but for the sake of conformity with most publications dealing with Ancient Egypt, this site will continue using both notions.
Visitors may, however, notice that the timeline below and the timescale used throughout The Ancient Egypt Site may be somewhat different from some of the other books or web-sites they have consulted. Visitors should also be aware that, as is the case with any publication dealing with Ancient Egypt, dates are approximations and should not be taken literally. In many cases it is not known just how long a king may have ruled.
Comparing different publications on the history and chronology of Ancient Egypt, visitors may notice that one king may be credited with a fairly short reign in one publication and a fairly long in another. This impacts the absolute chronology, that is to say, Egyptian history using our year numbering. In The Ancient Egypt Site, some dates will be proposed but again, they should only be seen as approximations and not as absolutes.
A discussion on the length of the reign of a king may follow and this discussion may show the likelihood that this king reigned longer or shorter than the dates linked to his reign. It can thus not be stressed enough that the provided dates are just a frame of reference helping readers to gain insight in the sequence of events and occurrences and to have an approximate idea of the age of certain monuments and artifacts.
Geographical data
In the north Egypt borders to the Mediterranean Sea, in the west to Libia, in the south to Sudan. East of Egypt are the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba and to the northeast Egypt borders to Israel and the Gaza Strip. Remarkable is the very narrow inhabitable Nile Valley going from south to north, while more than 95% of the country consists of deserts. The main part of Egypt lies on the African continent but the Sinai belongs to Asia.
Climate
Egypt has a desert climate with hot, dry summers and moderate winters. Difference in temperature in the day and night can be quite big. The hot summer starts in May while in November the mild winter starts. Rainfall is very sporadically and only falls in the north.
Languages
Almost 98% of the population speaks Egyptian-Arabic, a dialect of the Modern Standard Arabic. It is also the most important Arabic spoken since Egypt produces most of the Arab films, TV-series and music. Almost everyone in the countries where Arabic is spoken can understand an Egyptian. There are some minorities which speak Nubian, Berber and Coptic.