Old Kingdom of Egypt: A Visual History

The Old Kingdom (about 2686-2181 BC), Egypt's 3rd to 6th Dynasties, was the first great age of the unified pharaonic state, ruled from Memphis. Djoser's architect Imhotep built the first stone pyramid at Saqqara; Sneferu, Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure of the 4th Dynasty built the pyramids of Dahshur and Giza. The kings were living gods commanding a bureaucracy of scribes and a nation-wide labour draft. In the 5th and 6th Dynasties power drifted to provincial nomarchs and the sun cult; Pepi II's 90-year reign, low Niles and famine ended in the collapse into the First Intermediate Period.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Old 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.

Heights of major pyramids

Timeline of the Old Kingdom of Egypt

1. 2,686 BC
   3rd Dynasty; Old Kingdom begins
2. 2,650 BC
   Djoser's step pyramid
3. 2,600 BC
   Sneferu's pyramids
4. 2,560 BC
   Great Pyramid of Khufu
5. 2,500 BC
   Khafre; the Sphinx
6. 2,400 BC
   5th Dynasty sun temples
7. 2,278 BC
   Pepi II's long reign begins
8. 2,181 BC
   Old Kingdom collapses

Djoser and Imhotep

Egypt had been united around 3100 BC by the kings of the 1st Dynasty; the Old Kingdom proper begins with the 3rd. Djoser's step pyramid at Saqqara, about 60 metres high and surrounded by a stone enclosure with dummy buildings for the king's eternal jubilee, was the first monumental stone building in the world. Its architect Imhotep was later deified as a god of medicine.

The pyramid builders

Sneferu built three pyramids, including the Bent and Red pyramids, working out the true form. His son Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza, 146 metres high and made of some 2.3 million blocks, was the tallest structure on earth for 3,800 years; Khafre added the second pyramid and probably the Sphinx, Menkaure the third. Workers' villages at Giza show a fed and housed labour force of perhaps 20,000, not slaves. Expeditions went to Sinai for turquoise, Lebanon for cedar and Nubia for gold.

Decline

The 5th Dynasty kings built sun temples and smaller pyramids inscribed with the Pyramid Texts, the oldest religious writings; officials' tombs grew richer as royal ones shrank. Under the 6th Dynasty nomarchs became hereditary and built tombs in their provinces; Pepi II came to the throne aged six and reigned perhaps 90 years. Falling Nile floods around 2200 BC, famine and the loss of central control fragmented Egypt for over a century.

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

• Middle Kingdom of Egypt (2,055 BC to 1,650 BC)
• New Kingdom of Egypt (1,550 BC to 1,069 BC)
• Akkadian Empire (2,334 BC to 2,154 BC)
• Sumer (4,500 BC to 1,900 BC)
• Lagash (2,500 BC to 2,270 BC)
• Elamite Empire (2,700 BC to 539 BC)

8 surprising things about the Old Kingdom of Egypt

1. The Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure on earth until Lincoln Cathedral's spire in about 1311.
2. It is aligned to true north within a twentieth of a degree.
3. The pyramid builders were paid workers who received bread, beer and meat; graffiti names their gangs, such as 'Friends of Khufu'.
4. Pepi II's reign of up to 94 years is claimed as the longest of any monarch in history.
5. The Pyramid Texts in the 5th and 6th Dynasty pyramids are the world's oldest religious literature.
6. Imhotep is the first architect and physician known by name; the Greeks identified him with Asclepius.
7. A letter of the boy-king Pepi II survives, begging an official to bring a dancing pygmy safely to court.
8. Khufu's funerary boat, 43 metres long, was found dismantled in a pit beside his pyramid in 1954.

Sources

• Ancient Egypt: The Old Kingdom Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Old Kingdom of Egypt Wikipedia
• Old Kingdom of Egypt World History Encyclopedia
• Mark Lehner, The Complete Pyramids (1997) Thames and Hudson

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