Second Intermediate Period of Egypt

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Second Intermediate Period of Egypt

The Second Intermediate Period marks a period when Ancient Egypt

History of Ancient Egypt

The History of ancient Egypt spans the period from the early Predynastic Egypt settlements of the northern Nile Valley to the History of Roman Egypt in 30 BC....
once again fell into disarray between the end of the Middle Kingdom

Middle Kingdom of Egypt

The middle kingdom is the period in the history of ancient Egypt stretching from the establishment of the Eleventh dynasty of Egypt to the end of the Fourteenth dynasty of Egypt, roughly between 2040 BC and 1640 BC....
, and the start of the New Kingdom. It is best known as when the Hyksos

Hyksos

The Hyksos were an Asiatic people who invaded the eastern Nile Delta, in the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt initiating the Second Intermediate Period of Ancient Egypt....
made their appearance in Egypt, whose reign comprised the Fifteenth

Fifteenth dynasty of Egypt

The Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, Second Intermediate Period of Egypt....
and Sixteenth Dynasties

Sixteenth dynasty of Egypt

The Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, Second Intermediate Period....
.

The brilliant Egyptian Twelfth Dynasty

Twelfth dynasty of Egypt

The Eleventh , Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, Middle Kingdom of Egypt....
came to an end around 1800 BC, and was succeeded by the much weaker Thirteenth dynasty of Egypt

Thirteenth dynasty of Egypt

The Eleventh , Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, Middle Kingdom of Egypt....
. Both ruled from Itjtawy

Itjtawy

Itjtawy , is the as-yet unidentified location of the royal city founded by Twelfth dynasty of Egypt Egyptians King Amenemhat I during year 20 of his reign....
("Seizer-of-the-Two-Lands") near Memphis

Memphis, Egypt

Memphis was the ancient capital of the first Nome of Lower Egypt, and of the Old Kingdom of Egypt from its foundation until around 2200 BC and later for shorter periods during the New Kingdom, and an administrative centre throughout ancient history....
and el-Lisht

El-Lisht

Lisht or el-Lisht is an Egyptian village located south of Cairo. It is the site of Middle Kingdom of Egypt royal and elite burials, including two pyramids built by Amenemhat I and Senusret I....
, just south of the apex of the Nile Delta

Nile Delta

The Nile Delta is the River delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas?from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline?and is a rich agricultural region....
.

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The Second Intermediate Period marks a period when Ancient Egypt

History of Ancient Egypt

Middle Kingdom of Egypt

Hyksos

Fifteenth dynasty of Egypt

The Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, Second Intermediate Period of Egypt....
and Sixteenth Dynasties

Sixteenth dynasty of Egypt

The Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, Second Intermediate Period....
.

The brilliant Egyptian Twelfth Dynasty

Twelfth dynasty of Egypt

Thirteenth dynasty of Egypt

The Eleventh , Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, Middle Kingdom of Egypt....
. Both ruled from Itjtawy

Itjtawy

Memphis, Egypt

El-Lisht

Nile Delta

Khendjer

Khendjer was an Ancient Egypt Pharaoh of the Thirteenth dynasty of Egypt. The name Khendjer is poorly attested in Egyptian. Khendjer "has been interpreted as a foreign name hnzr and equated with the Semitic personal name hzr, [for] 'boar'" according to the Danish Egyptologist Kim Ryholt....
. The Thirteenth Dynasty proved unable to hold onto the entire territory of Egypt, and the provincial ruling family in Xois

Xois

Xois , was a town of great antiquity and considerable size and was situated nearly in the center of the Nile Delta, Egypt; it is identified as the ancient Egyptian city of Khasut or Khaset....
, located in the marshes of the western Delta, broke away from the central authority to form the Fourteenth Dynasty

Fourteenth dynasty of Egypt

The Eleventh , Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, Middle Kingdom, though this dynasty overlaps partially with either the Thirteenth dynasty of Egypt or the Fifteenth dynasty of Egypt, during the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt....
. The splintering of the land accelerated after the reign of the Thirteenth Dynasty king Sobekhotep IV

Sobekhotep IV

Sobekhotep IV Khaneferre was one of the most powerful Egyptian kings of the 13th Dynasty. He was the son of the 'god's father' Haankhef and of the 'king's mother' Kemi....
. It was during Sobekhotep IV's reign that the Hyksos may have made their first appearance, and around 1720 BC took control of the town of Avaris

Avaris

Avaris , was located near modern Tell el-Dab'a in the northeastern region of the Nile Delta. As the main course of the Nile migrated eastward and the delta sedimented up and moved with the river, its position at the hub of Egypt's delta emporia made it a major administrative capital of the Hyksos "Phoenician kings" and other traders....
(the modern Tell ed-Dab'a/Khata'na), a few miles from Qantir. The outlines of the traditional account of the "invasion" of the land by the Hyksos is preserved in the Aegyptiaca of Manetho

Manetho

Manetho was an Egyptian historian and priest from Sebennytos who lived during the Ptolemaic dynasty, ca. 3rd century BC. Manetho wrote the Aegyptiaca ....
, an Egyptian priest who wrote in the time of Ptolemy II Philadelphus. Manetho recorded that it was during the reign of one "Tutimaios" (who has been identified with Dudimose I of the Fourteenth Dynasty) that the Hyksos overran Egypt, led by Salitis

Salitis

Salitis was the first pharaoh of the Hyksos Fifteenth dynasty of Egypt, who began to rule Egypt around 1648 Before Christ. The precise dates of his rule are unknown....
, the founder of the Fifteenth Dynasty. This dynasty was succeeded by a group of Hyksos princes and chieftains, who ruled in the eastern Delta with their local Egyptian vassals, and are known primarily by scarabs inscribed with their names, called by modern Egyptologists the Sixteenth Dynasty.

The later kings of the Thirteenth Dynasty appear to be only ephemeral monarchs under the control of a powerful line of vizier

Vizier (Ancient Egypt)

The vizier was the highest official in Ancient Egypt to serve the king, or pharaoh during the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. Vizier is the generally accepted rendering of ancient Egyptian tjati, tjaty etc, among Egyptologists....
s, and indeed it has been suggested that the kingship in this period might have been elective if not actually appointive. One monarch late in the dynasty, Wahibre Ibiau

Wahibre Ibiau

throne name: Wahibrebirth name: Ibiau'Wahibre Ibiau is an Egyptian king of the Thirteenth dynasty of Egypt, who reigned for 10 years, 8 months and 29 days according to the Turin King List....
, may have even been a former vizier. Beginning with the reign of Sobekhotep IV, the power of this dynasty, weak to begin with, deteriorated. The later king Merneferre Ai

Merneferre Ai

'Merneferre Ay' was an Ancient Egyptian ruler of the Thirteenth dynasty of Egypt. He assumed the throne around 1700s BC. His reign length--as preserved in the damaged Turin King List?was disputed in the past with J?rgen von Beckerath reading the damaged figure on the papyrus fragment as only 13 years in his 1964 work Untersuchungen zur polit...
(ruled c.1700 BC) appears to have been a mere vassal of the Hyksos princes ruling there; his successors held onto their diminished office until c.1633 BC.

Around the time Memphis and Itj-tawy fell to the Hyksos, the native Egyptian ruling house in Thebes

Thebes, Egypt

Thebes was a city in Ancient Egypt located about 800 km south of the Mediterranean, on the east bank of the river Nile . It was the capital of Waset, the fourth Upper Egyptian Nome ....
declared its independence from the vassal dynasty in Itj-tawy and set itself up as the Seventeenth Dynasty

Seventeenth dynasty of Egypt

The Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, Second Intermediate Period....
. This dynasty was to prove the salvation of Egypt and would eventually lead the war of liberation that drove the Hyksos back into Asia. The two last kings of this dynasty were Tao II the Brave

Tao II the Brave

Seqenenre Tao II, , called The Brave, ruled over the last of the local kingdoms of the Thebes, Egypt region of Egypt in the Seventeenth dynasty of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period....
and Kamose

Kamose

Kamose was the last king of the Thebes, Egypt Seventeenth dynasty of Egypt. He was probably the son of Tao II the Brave and Ahhotep I and the full brother of Ahmose I, founder of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt....
, whom tradition credited with the final defeat of the Hyksos. With the Eighteenth Dynasty

Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt

The Eighteenth Dynasty is perhaps the best known of all the dynasties of ancient Egypt. As well as a number of Egypt's most powerful pharaohs, it included Tutankhamun, whose tomb, uncovered by Howard Carter in 1922, was one of the greatest of all archaeological discoveries, being completely undisturbed by tomb robbers....
, the New Kingdom

New Kingdom

The New Kingdom, sometimes referred to as the Egyptian Empire, is the period in ancient Egyptian History of Ancient Egypt between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC, covering the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt, and Twentieth dynasty of Egypt....
begins.

Bibliography

Von Beckerath, Jürgen. "Untersuchungen zur politischen Geschichte der zweiten Zwischenzeit in Ägypten," Ägyptologische Forschungen, Heft 23. Glückstadt, 1965.
Gardiner, Sir Alan
Alan Gardiner

Sir Alan Henderson Gardiner was one of the premier United Kingdom Egyptologists of the early and mid-20th century. Some of his most important publications include a 1959 book on his study of "The Royal Canon of Turin" and his seminal 1961 work Egypt of the Pharaohs, which covered all aspects of Egyptian chronology and history at the time...
. Egypt of the Pharaohs. Oxford, 1964, 1961.
Hayes, William C. "Egypt: From the Death of Ammenemes III to Seqenenre II." Chapter 2, Volume II of The Cambridge Ancient History. Revised Edition, 1965.
James, T.G.H. "Egypt: From the Expulsion of the Hyksos to Amenophis I." Chapter 8, Volume II of The Cambridge Ancient History. Revised Edition, 1965.
Kitchen, Kenneth A., "Further Notes on New Kingdom Chronology and History," Chronique d'Egypte, 63 (1968), pp. 313-324.
Oren, Eliezer D. The Hyksos: New Historical and Archaeological Perspectives Philadelphia, 1997.
Ryholt, Kim The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period c.1800-1550 B.C., Museum Tuscalanum Press, 1997. ISBN 87-7289-421-0
Van Seters, John. The Hyksos: A New Investigation. New Haven, 1966.