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3150 BCE
KEVIN

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Menes (c. 3150 BCE) is the legendary first king of Egypt who is thought to have united Upper and Lower Egypt through conquest and founded both the First Dynasty and the great city of Memphis. His name is known from sources such as Manetho's Chronology (3rd century BCE), The Turin King List, and the Palermo Stone as well as from some scant archaeological evidence such as ivory engravings. In the early days of Egyptology, Menes was accepted as the first historical king based upon the written records. As time went by, however, and archaeological excavations failed to turn up any evidence of such a king, scholars began to question whether he had actually existed or was, perhaps, a composite figure drawn from the memory of the reigns of other kings.

The Egyptologist Flinders Petrie (1853-1942 CE) concluded that the name 'Menes' was actually an honorific title meaning "he who endures", not a personal name, and the first historical pharaoh of Egypt was Narmer (c. 3150 BCE) whose existence was firmly established both by the written record and archaeological evidence (most notably, the Narmer Palette, a siltstone engraving depicting Narmer's victory over Lower Egypt). In the modern day, Petrie's claim is the most widely accepted and Menes is associated with Narmer (though there are some scholars who associate the name with Narmer's son Hor-Aha). The legend of Menes, however, took on a life of its own quite independent of whatever the king Narmer may or may not have done. Narmer allegedly united the two lands of Egypt peacefully over time, married a princess to consolidate his power, and then began building projects and further developing trade with other cultures. These accomplishments, however, were not grand enough for the first king of Egypt who not only needed to be larger than life but also to symbolize a key concept in Egyptian culture: duality.

Duality in Egyptian Belief

For the Egyptians, life was a matter of balance and needed to be lived according to the principle of (harmony). This belief permeated every aspect of Egyptian culture including the office of the king. Manetho's Chronology begins by listing the many gods who ruled Egypt before Menes and, when it reaches the first king, makes clear that this man balanced Egypt by conquering the forces of chaos and presiding over a land of order. Whether this actually happened was not as important as what it symbolized. The scholars Oakes and Gahlin comment on this, writing:

The crux of the ancient Egyptian system of beliefs was the relationship between order ( ma'at) and chaos ( isfet). Although a state of order was considered to be the ideal, it was acknowledged that an opposing yet interdependent state of chaos must exist in order for equilibrium to be achieved (336).

The story of Menes' unification of Egypt is considered a symbolic representation of this duality so central to Egyptian culture. Prior to Menes there was conflict between the city states of Upper and Lower Egypt resulting in chaos; then came the great king who brought order and, from that order, prosperity. It was understood that chaos could come again, however, and so the king needed to be vigilant and, just as importantly, had to be a mighty warrior who could subdue the forces of chaos when the need arose. Oakes and Gahlin note:

The conventions of Egyptian art were perfect for illustrating the concept of duality, because symmetry was frequently used to create a balanced design. This is best exemplified by the artistic representation of the fundamentally important idea of the 'Unification of the Two Lands' ( sema tawy). The ancient Egyptians viewed their country as consisting of two distinct parts: Upper Egypt ( Shemau) and Lower Egypt ( Ta-Mehu). These correspond to the South (the Nile Valley from the first cataract north to just south of Memphis) and the North (the Delta), respectively. The people believed that the origins of the state of Egypt could be traced to an act of unification of these two regions by a ruler named Menes (for whom there is no archaeological evidence) at the beginning of the early Dynastic Period (336).

Menes is said to have united the two lands through conquest and, afterwards, instituted policies which brought peace and order. As noted, it is now thought that Narmer was responsible for these advances and 'Menes' was his honorific; but whatever facts on Narmer's reign were available to the early historians, they were discarded or embellished upon to create the legend of the great king Menes.

Menes: The Legend

Menes came from the city of Hierkanpolis (though it is also claimed he came from Thinis) and conquered the neighboring cities of Upper Egypt, Thinis and Naqada, before embarking on the campaign to subdue lower Egypt. Manetho credits him with expanding the borders of his kingdom by marching across the frontiers, bringing order out of chaos. He was a great warrior but also highly cultured and later writers (such as the Roman historian Pliny) claimed he invented written script.

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Menes' reign of 62 years was so prosperous that Diodorus Siculus claims Menes invented the concept of luxury.

Once Egypt was unified and at peace, he instituted religious practices and formalized beliefs. His reign was so prosperous (lasting 62 years) that the Egyptians did not have to work as hard as they used to and developed hobbies such as carving, sculpting, sports, brewing beer, cultivating private gardens and living in luxury. In fact, the later writer Diodorus Siculus claims Menes invented the concept of luxury.

He rode on the back of a crocodile to escape rabid hunting dogs (founding the city of Crocodilopolis), founded the great city of Memphis, and established his capital there. According to Herodotus, he built Memphis after constructing a dam on the Nile to divert water away from the chosen site of his city and created his great palace and administrative buildings on land which had been under water (which accounted for the fertility of the surrounding plains). He instituted the practice of sacrificing to the gods and ensured that harmony was observed throughout the land. After a long and prosperous reign, he was carried off (or killed) by a hippopotamus.

It is not surprising that a hippomotamus should feature in Menes' end. The hippopotamus in Egyptian culture was a fearsome creature who was regularly hunted and killed and death by hippopotamus was considered among the worst. Further, the animal was associated with the god of chaos, Set, the first murderer who had killed his brother Osiris and been defeated by Osiris' son Horus. In keeping with the principle of duality, however, Set had a consort, Taweret, pictured as a woman with the head of a hippopotamus who was considered a protector. The dual nature of these two entwined gods was derived from the Egyptians' observations of the hippopotamus: the females protected and nurtured their young while the males were more aggressive and destructive.

Menes' death by hippopotamus could have been interpreted by an audience as meaning chaos had come and carried him away and, if such a thing could happen to so great a king, it could happen to anyone; people, therefore, should remain vigilant at all times. Tawaret was not associated with universal protection but only of mothers and children so it is unlikely that Menes' death would have been seen as a protective gesture by the gods who took him from earth at the appropriate time; but the association of the hippo with protection may have encouraged such an interpretation.

Menes: The History

However Menes' death was viewed, his reign was considered a kind of golden age for Egypt when life was good and the land prosperous. The scholar Douglas J. Brewer writes:

These written accounts of Menes' accomplishments, however, date thousands of years after his death, by which time he had been transformed into a cult hero whose life and accomplishments were embellished with semi-mythical anecdotes (126).

The actual king who most probably united the two lands of Egypt was Narmer who was almost certainly from the city of Thinis. Narmer established himself as supreme king of Upper and Lower Egypt and married the princess Neithhotep of Naqada in an alliance to strengthen ties between the two cities. Although he is thought to have united Egypt peacefully, there is evidence he did so through military conquest. The Narmer Palette clearly depicts this king subduing Lower Egypt by force; though whether the inscriptions on the palette should be read as history or symbollically continues to be debated. Even so, he most likely led military expeditions through lower Egypt to put down rebellions and, as with the Menes' legend, crossed the frontiers and expanded his territory into Canaan and Nubia. He initiated large building projects and the small cities of the Predynastic Period of Egypt grew in size and scope.

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Narmer would not have instituted religious practice but most likely formalized it. He certainly is responsible for the buildings dated to his time which, like all those that followed, expressed the religious beliefs of the Egyptians through their architecture. When Narmer was born or how he died is unknown but it is quite clear that such a king existed whereas the same cannot be said for Menes. Brewer writes:

Menes probably never existed, at least as the individual responsible for all the attributed feats. Rather he is most likely a compilation of real-life individuals whose deeds were recorded through oral tradition and identified as the work of a single person, thereby creating a central hero figure for Egypt's unification. Like the personalities of the Bible, Menes was part fiction, part truth, and the years have masked the borderline, creating a legend of unification (142).

Unification of Egypt, whether completed or only initiated by Narmer, was probably a slow process which took many years. The turmoil evident during the Second Dynasty (c. 2980 - c. 2670 BCE) supports the claim that unification was not accomplished in a single stroke by one king. Egyptian culture, however, needed the legend of Menes and the unification of Egypt in order to establish a connection between the first king and the enduring concept of duality. Oakes and Gahlin write:

This particular aspect of the notion of duality manifested itself very clearly in the royal titles. The king's chief titles were 'Lord of the Two Lands' ( Neb Tawy) and 'King of Upper and Lower Egypt' ( Nesw Bity)...The regalia of kingship also reflected the idea of duality. The king might be depicted wearing the white crown associated with Upper Egypt, the Red Crown of Lower Egypt, or sometimes the Double Crown which incorporated the crowns of both regions. So north and south were distinct but both were necessary to create a whole (337).

The legend of Menes served to symbolize that whole. A great king capable of amazing feats who established a harmonious golden age at the beginning of recorded history was far more meaningful to later generations than a mere man who may or may not have unified the country. Like any founder of a nation throughout history, Menes served as an ideal of the culture's values and what it aspired to. Whether an actual man named Menes existed was irrelevant; what mattered was what his story meant to the people of his country.

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Menes (c. 3150 BCE) is the legendary first king of Egypt who is thought to have united Upper and Lower Egypt through conquest and founded both the First Dynasty and the great city of Memphis.

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The Middle Kingdom 2055 to 1650 B.C.E.
kevin

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While the First Intermediate Period took place, new powers began to emerge sparking rival dynasties between Heracleopolis (Lower Egypt) and Thebes (Upper Egypt). Not long after the rivalry began, the...

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1324 B.C
KEVIN

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King Tutankhamun (Tutankhamen or simply King Tut) ruled Egypt as pharaoh for 10 years until his death at age 19, around 1324 B.C. Though his rule was notable for reversing the religious reforms of his father Akhenaten, Tutankhamun's legacy was largely negated by his successors. He was barely known to the modern world until 1922, when British archaeologist Howard Carter chiseled into the intact tomb of King Tut. The tomb's hoard of treasure, intended to accompany the king into the afterlife, revealed an incredible amount about life in ancient Egypt, and made Tutankhamun the world's most famous pharaoh.

Who Was King Tut?

Genetic testing has verified that King Tut was the grandson of the great pharaoh Amenhotep III, and almost certainly the son of Akhenaten, a controversial figure in the history of the 18th dynasty of Egypt's New Kingdom (c.1550-1295 B.C.). Akhenaten upended a centuries-old religious system to favor worship of a single deity, the sun god Aten, and moved Egypt's religious capital from Thebes to Amarna.

After Akhenaten's death, two intervening pharaohs briefly reigned before the nine-year-old prince, then called Tutankhaten, took the throne.

Did you know? Carter's patron, Lord Carnarvon, died four months after first entering the tomb, leading journalists to popularize a "Curse of the Pharaohs," claiming that hieroglyphs on the tomb walls promised swift death to those who disturbed King Tut. More than a dozen deaths have been attributed to the curse, but studies have shown that those who entered the tomb on average lived just as long as their peers who didn't enter.

Tutankhamun reversed Akhenaten's reforms early in his reign, reviving worship of the god Amun, restoring Thebes as a religious center and changing the end of his name to reflect royal allegiance to the creator god Amun. He also worked in concert with his powerful advisers Horemheb and Ay-both future pharaohs-to restore Egypt's stature in the region.

How Did King Tut Die?

There are many theories as to what killed King Tut at the age of 19. He was tall but physically frail, with a crippling bone disease in his clubbed left foot. He is the only pharaoh known to have been depicted seated while engaged in physical activities like archery. Traditional inbreeding in the Egyptian royal family also likely contributed to the boy king's poor health and early death. DNA tests published in 2010 revealed that Tutankhamun's parents were brother and sister, and that King Tut's wife Ankhesenamun was also his half-sister. Their only two daughters were stillborn.

Because Tutankhamun's remains revealed a hole in the back of the skull, some historians had concluded that the young king was assassinated, but recent tests suggest that the hole was made during mummification. CT scans in 1995 showed that the king had an infected broken left leg, while DNA from his mummy revealed evidence of multiple malaria infections, all of which may have contributed to his early death.

King Tut: Mummy and Tomb

After he died, Tutankhamun was mummified according to Egyptian religious tradition, which held that royal bodies should be preserved and provisioned for the afterlife. Embalmers removed his organs and wrapped him in resin-soaked bandages, a 24-pound solid gold portrait mask was placed over his head and shoulders and he was laid in a series of nested containers-three golden coffins, a granite sarcophagus and four gilded wooden shrines, the largest of which barely fit into the tomb's burial chamber.

Because of his tomb's small size, historians suggest King Tut's death must have been unexpected and his burial rushed by Ay, who succeeded him as pharaoh. The tomb's antechambers were packed to the ceiling with more than 5,000 artifacts, including furniture, chariots, clothes, weapons and 130 of the lame king's walking sticks.

The entrance corridor was apparently looted soon after the burial, but the inner rooms remained sealed. The pharaohs who followed King Tut chose to ignore his reign, as despite his work restoring Amun, Tutankhamun was tainted by the connection to his father's religious upheavals. Within a few generations, the tomb's entrance had been clogged with stone debris, built over by workmen's huts and forgotten.

Howard Carter

By the time he discovered Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter had been excavating Egyptian antiquities for three decades. At the time of the discovery, archaeologists believed that all the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings, across the river from ancient Thebes, had already been cleared.

Excitement about the new tomb-the most intact ever found-quickly spread worldwide, igniting a global fascination with the boy pharaoh and the powerful civilization of ancient Egypt. It took Carter and his team a decade to catalogue and empty the tomb.

Grand Egyptian Museum

Artifacts from King Tut's tomb have toured the world in several blockbuster museum shows, including the worldwide 1972-79 "Treasures of Tutankhamun" exhibitions. Eight million visitors in seven U.S. cities viewed the exhibition of the golden burial mask and 50 other precious items from the tomb.

Today the most fragile artifacts, including the burial mask, no longer leave Egypt. Tutankhamun's mummy remains on display within the tomb in the Valley of the Kings in the KV62 chamber, his layered coffins replaced with a climate-controlled glass box. His golden mask is on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but the Tutankhamun collection will eventually move to the Grand Egyptian Museum, or GEM, located near the Pyramids of Giza.

HISTORY Vault: Ancient History

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Tutankhamun: Tomb, Mummy, Death & Howard Carter - HISTORY

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Tutankhamun, or simply King Tut, ruled Egypt as pharaoh until his early death. Howard Carter found his tomb intact, setting off a worldwide Egyptology frenzy.

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641 CE.
KEVIN

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Throughout the Middle Ages, from its conquest by the Islamic Empire in the year 641 until 1517, Egypt was governed as part of a series of Arab Caliphates. The various Caliphs, including the Umayyad and the Fatimid dynasties, kept hold of the country for almost 900 years, despite invasions by neighbouring empires and the Crusades being waged against them. During this time, Cairo was built and became capital city.

In 1517, the Mamluk Caliphate of Egypt was conquered by the Ottoman Turks, reducing it to a province forced to pay huge taxes to the Ottoman Empire. It was still semi-autonomously ruled by the Mamluks, however a weakened economy, plagues and famines made it vulnerable, and it was invaded in 1798 by Napoleonic forces.

When the French were then defeated by the British in 1801, it left a power vacuum between the Mamluks, the Ottoman Turks, and Albanian mercenaries serving the Ottoman army, paving the way for independent Egypt in 1805.

Modern Egypt

In 1805, the Albanian commander Muhammed Ali seized power and massacred the Mamluks. With temporary approval of the Ottomans, he ruled an effectively independent Sultanate and instituted many military, economic and cultural reforms. He is, as such, considered the founder of Modern Egypt.

Under the successors of Muhammed Ali, Egypt began to lose its power, and fell under the influence of the British, French and Turkish. Egypt was then occupied by the British from 1882 until 1956, and was used as a base for British operations during World War II. Under the popular King Farouk, British forces were forced to withdraw from most of the country, with the exception of the area surrounding the Suez Canal. Anti-British feelings continued, and in 1952 a military coup overthrew Farouk's monarchy, establishing the Republic of Egypt.

Since the 1952 Revolution, Egypt has remained independent, however the ensuing years have been characterised by conflict with Israel and its supporters, including the Suez Crisis, the Six-Day War in 1967 and the 1973 War.

The historic Camp David Peace Treaties signed by Egypt - under President Sadat - and Israel in 1978 saw much-improved international relations between the Republic and the rest of the world. After Sadat was assassinated by fundamentalist army officers in 1981, control was taken by President Mubarak. Mubarak's 29-year-rule was based on commitment to the Camp David Accords and had great success in domestic economic reforms. However, his presidency saw a huge amount of social unrest, political corruption and police brutality, and he was overthrown during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution.

Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has been President of Egypt since 2014.

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History of Egypt from the 7th Century - Islam conquest of Egypt

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Throughout the Middle Ages, from its conquest by the Islamic Empire in the year 641 until 1517, Egypt was governed as part of a series of Arab Caliphates. The various Caliphs, including the Umayyad and the Fatimid dynasties, kept hold of the country for almost 900 years, despite invasions by neighbouring empires and the Crusades being waged against them.

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Nebuchadnessar II is king of Babylonia and builds the hanging gardens.634 a. C

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The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire existing from the mid-to-late 3rd century CE to 543 CE.

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Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism who later became known as “the Buddha,” lived during the 5th century B.C.

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The Rise of Hinduism

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Hannibal was still only 46 at the conclusion of the Second Punic War in 201 BC and soon showed that he could be a statesman as well as a soldier.

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The Babylonians conquer Jerusalem and destroy the Temple of Jerusalem.586 BC

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Hammurabi is leader of Babylonia and publishes his laws 1810 BC

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Phoenicia enters wars with the Romans called the Punic Wars, under Hannibal.146 a. C.

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Cyrus the Great conquers Babylonia, Syria and Palestine.530 bc

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Phoenicians dominate the Mediterranean trade routes under Queen Dido. 814 BC

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The siege of Tyre was orchestrated by Alexander the Great in 332 BC during his campaigns against the Persians. ... Alexander responded to this problem by first blockading and besieging Tyre for seven months, and then by building a causeway that allowed him to breach the fortifications.

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400.000 bcBeginning of the Qin Dynasty in China, build the Great Wall

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400.000 bcBeginning of the Qin Dynasty in China, build the Great Wall

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Naomi

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Beginning of the Jin Dynasty in China Naomi

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1600 bc Beginning of Shang Dynasty in China Naomi

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1600 bc Beginning of Shang Dynasty in China Naomi

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todos deben poner el nombre y el color.porfa para que los problemas  no ocurran

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todos deben poner el nombre y el color.porfa para que los problemas  no ocurran

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The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, flourishing from c. 3000 BC to c. 1450 BC and, after a late period of decline, finally ending around 1100 BC, during the early Greek Dark Ages.

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Mycenaean Greece (or the Mycenaean civilization) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1600–1100 BC

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The Greek Dark Age is the interval between the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization, around 1200 BCE, and the Greek Archaic Period, around c. 800 BCE. ... Iron-working is the one technological innovation that stands out during this period, so the Greek Dark Age is also known as the Early Iron Age.

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The term “classical Greece” refers to the period between the Persian Wars at the beginning of the fifth century B.C. and the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C.

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hilip II, byname Philip of Macedon, (born 382 BCE—died 336, Aegae [now Vergina, Greece]), 18th king of Macedonia (359–336 BCE), who restored internal peace to his country and by 339 had gained domination over all of Greece by military and diplomatic means, thus laying the foundations for its expansion under his son Alexander III the Great.

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69 BC
KEVIN

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42 BC
kevin

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Relief sculpture of Cleopatra at the Temple of Hathor, Dandara, Egypt

Cunning, charming and captivating, the Egyptian Cleopatra was horrifying, yet fascinating to many of Rome's citizens.

Just when she may have thought she was in sight of the Roman throne – the biggest prize in the ancient world – her own world came crashing down.

Cleo and Julius

In the middle of the civil war that would bring him to power, Julius Caesar spent the winter of 48 BC in Egypt. There he met Cleopatra, the woman who would set Roman nerves on edge for most of the next 20 years.

Cleopatra was soon to become Queen of Egypt, the richest kingdom in the Mediterranean. With Caesar already notorious for his sexual energy, the two became lovers almost immediately.

Caesar's Palace

The following year, Caesar returned home and, in 46 BC, was named dictator of Rome. Cleopatra followed, bringing along her young son Ptolemy XV Caesar, also called Caesarion, whom she claimed was the son of Julius Caesar.

Romans did not know what to make of her. They were horrified by having an Egyptian Queen in Rome, yet fascinated by the woman herself. Her charm clearly won them over and many members of Rome's elite visited her temporary palace in Rome (reserved for her by Caesar) and paid her homage.

Love didn't last

This love-in was short-lived. By 44 BC, Caesar was dead and Rome had again sunk into civil war. Cleopatra returned to Egypt as Caesar's great-nephew and heir, Augustus, teamed up with Marc Antony and Lepidus to fight Caesar's assassins.

By 42 BC, Augustus and his allies had gained the upper hand. They divided the Roman Empire between them. Augustus took Rome, and Marc Antony took Egypt.

Cleo and Marc

Marc Antony fell in love with Cleopatra soon after they first met. Captivated, he decided to stay with her in Egypt.

The news spread quickly and worried many Romans. They believed that Cleopatra was planning the unthinkable and wanted to rule Rome for herself.

Rumors then spread that Marc Antony and Cleopatra had married. In truth, this is unlikely: he was already married – to Augustus' sister, Octavia – and it was illegal for a citizen to marry somebody who was not. But to many, the rumors seemed to confirm that Marc Antony had fallen for the worst possible type of woman and switched sides.

Walk like an Egyptian

To make matters worse, Antony and Cleopatra portrayed themselves as the earthly version of the divine couple. They adopted the images of both the Greek gods Aphrodite and Dionysus, and their Egyptian counterparts, Isis and Osiris.

Relations between Augustus and Marc Antony disintegrated. In Rome, Augustus let loose a barrage of negative publicity about the couple. He then revealed that Marc Antony had made arrangements to leave large gifts and royal titles in his will to his illegitimate children by Cleopatra.

A final solution

This was widely seen as definitive proof that Antony and Cleopatra were leaders of a rival empire and wanted to invade Italy and conquer Rome for themselves. Augustus urged the Senate to strip Antony of his powers and declared war on Cleopatra.

In 31 BC, Augustus' army and navy clashed with Antony and Cleopatra's Egyptian forces at Actium in Greece, in what Virgil would later depict as an epic struggle of eastern barbarians against western civilization.

Over for good

The Egyptians were completely outgunned and outmaneuvered and the battle destroyed three-quarters of their fleet. Antony and Cleopatra fled back to Alexandria but, within a year, the city was besieged by Roman soldiers.

Rather than be captured and taken to Rome as prisoners, the two lovers committed suicide. Augustus was now the undisputed ruler of the Roman Empire, an empire which finally included the great kingdom of Egypt.

Where to next:
Emperors - Augustus
Emperors - Julius Caesar

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The Roman Empire: in the First Century. The Roman Empire. Enemies & Rebels. Cleopatra & Egypts | PBS

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Relief sculpture of Cleopatra at the Temple of Hathor, Dandara, Egypt Cunning, charming and captivating, the Egyptian Cleopatra was horrifying, yet fascinating to many of Rome's citizens. Just when she may have thought she was in sight of the Roman throne - the biggest prize in the ancient world - her own world came crashing down.

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Phoenicians dominate the Mediterranean trade routes under Queen Dido.The Phoenicians also had famous female leaders, including Dido, the Queen of Carthage.

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The Punic Wars were a series of conflicts fought between the forces of ancient Carthage and Rome between 264 BCE and 146 BCE.