Middle Kingdom of Egypt: A Visual History

The Middle Kingdom (about 2055-1650 BC) began when Mentuhotep II of Thebes reunited Egypt after the First Intermediate Period. The 12th Dynasty founded by Amenemhat I ruled from Itjtawy near the Faiyum for over 200 years of stability: Senusret III conquered Lower Nubia and built a chain of fortresses at the Second Cataract, the Faiyum was reclaimed for agriculture, and literature (the Tale of Sinuhe, the Instructions) reached its classical form. The 13th Dynasty's weak kings lost the delta to Canaanite settlers, the Hyksos, around 1650 BC.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Middle Kingdom of Egypt. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Middle Kingdom territory

Timeline of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt

1. 2,055 BC
   Mentuhotep II reunites Egypt
2. 1,985 BC
   Amenemhat I founds the 12th Dynasty
3. 1,956 BC
   Amenemhat I assassinated
4. 1,870 BC
   Senusret IIINubian campaigns.
5. 1,831 BC
   Amenemhat IIIThe Faiyum developed.
6. 1,760 BC
   13th Dynasty
7. 1,650 BC
   Hyksos take the delta

Reunification

After the Old Kingdom's collapse Egypt split between Herakleopolis and Thebes. Mentuhotep II defeated the north around 2055 BC, took the name 'Uniter of the Two Lands' and built a terraced funerary temple at Deir el-Bahri. His vizier Amenemhat probably seized the throne around 1985 BC, founding the 12th Dynasty and moving the capital north to Itjtawy.

The 12th Dynasty

Amenemhat I was assassinated in a palace plot, but his co-regent son Senusret I secured the succession; the Tale of Sinuhe describes the moment. Senusret III (about 1870-1831) crushed the power of provincial nomarchs, campaigned into Nubia and built massive mud-brick fortresses at Buhen and Semna to control the gold trade; his brooding statues show a careworn king. Amenemhat III developed the Faiyum with a great lake and the labyrinthine temple at Hawara.

Decline

Amenemhat IV and Queen Sobekneferu ended the dynasty; the 13th Dynasty saw dozens of short-lived kings, many not related, though the state functioned for a century. Canaanite immigrants settled in the eastern delta at Avaris; their leaders became the Hyksos kings around 1650 BC, and Nubia's kingdom of Kush took over the southern forts. Thebes fought back to found the New Kingdom.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Old Kingdom of Egypt (2,686 BC to 2,181 BC)
• Hyksos (1,650 BC to 1,550 BC)
• New Kingdom of Egypt (1,550 BC to 1,069 BC)
• First Babylonian Empire (1,894 BC to 1,595 BC)
• Old Assyrian period (2,025 BC to 1,364 BC)
• Old Hittite Kingdom (1,650 BC to 1,500 BC)

8 surprising things about the Middle Kingdom of Egypt

1. The Tale of Sinuhe, about a courtier who flees to Syria after a royal assassination, was Egypt's most copied story for a thousand years.
2. Senusret III's statues are the first Egyptian royal portraits to show age and worry.
3. Amenemhat III's temple at Hawara was called the Labyrinth by Herodotus, who thought it surpassed the pyramids.
4. The Middle Kingdom's Nubian forts had walls 5 metres thick and drawbridges; they were among the greatest fortifications of the Bronze Age.
5. Sobekneferu, who closed the 12th Dynasty, was the first woman certainly to rule Egypt as king.
6. The Instructions of Amenemhat, written in the murdered king's voice, warn his son to trust no one.
7. The Middle Kingdom's language, Middle Egyptian, remained the classical written form for the rest of pharaonic history.
8. The 12th Dynasty introduced co-regency, crowning the heir during the father's lifetime, to prevent succession crises.

Sources

• Ancient Egypt: The Middle Kingdom Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Middle Kingdom of Egypt Wikipedia
• Middle Kingdom of Egypt World History Encyclopedia
• Toby Wilkinson, The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt (2010) Bloomsbury

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