The Nile controlled everything for the Egyptians, so this effected it. This part of the country was also divided into nomes , or provinces. However, most of this land undeveloped scrubland, the organization of the nomes underwent several changes. Ultimately there were twenty nomes and the first of these was Memphis. Egyptian history is divided into periods that reflect the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under one king.
Intermediate periods of Egyptian history were times when Upper and Lower Egypt were not unified under one king. Egypt's landscape is dominated by the Nile delta at Alexandria. Weather can be extreme and there is more rainfall in this area.
The pharaohs of the 5th and 6th dynasties continue to rule from Memphis and their lives are known in increasing detail from inscriptions. One example is an enthusiastic letter of thanks sent by the last king of the 6th dynasty, Pepi II, to a governor of Aswan who has brought him a Pygmy dancer from Nubia. The governor, Harkhuf, is so proud of the document that he has its text engraved on the facade of his tomb.
But the pharaohs of the 6th dynasty have lost the vigour of their predecessors. Their rule is followed by a century of anarchy, covering the 7th to 10th dynasties and known as the First Intermediate Period c. The Middle Kingdom: c. When stability returns, it is under the rule of a family deriving their power from middle Egypt. Mentuhotep II also known by his throne name, Nebhepetre wins control of the whole country in about BC. His base is Thebes, which now begins its central role in the story of ancient Egypt - though relatively little survives of Mentuhotep's own monuments in the region.
The Middle Kingdom, spanning the 11th and 12th dynasties, is notable for the first serious effort to colonize Nubia. This region now becomes of great importance to Egypt's trade in luxuries. Nubia's mines are the chief source of Egyptian gold. Rare commodities such as ivory and ebony, the skins of leopards and the plumes of ostriches, now travel down the upper Nile to be traded for Egyptian goods. The market place is at the second cataract today submerged under Lake Nasser.
Here the Nubians exchange their commodities - and their slaves, always an important element in the trade of this region - for the manufactured goods and the weapons of the more developed economy. The cataract system created a natural boundary at Aswan, separating Egypt from its southern neighbor, Nubia. Each of these zones had its own natural environment and its own role within the Egyptian State. Cities could only flourish in the Nile Delta, the Nile Valley, or desert oases, where people had access to water, land, and key resources.
The ancient Egyptians, who were always keen observers of nature, often associated the Nile Valley with life and abundance and the neighboring deserts with death and chaos. The dry climate of the desert, for example, made it an ideal location for cemeteries.
Good preservation and the fact that most people do not live in the desert, are the main reasons that so much of what archaeologists and anthropologists study comes from a funerary context. View with the Nile River Valley in the foreground and the desert cliffs in the background. These two designations may seem counterintuitive to their physical locations, but they reflect the flow of the Nile River, from South to North.
The expansive floodplain of the Nile Delta and the very narrow band of fertile land present in the Nile Valley led to different ways of life. In the Nile Delta for example, the Egyptians constructed their towns and cemeteries on turtlebacks; natural highpoints in the landscape that became islands during the inundation. These communities were concentrated in the North and the South. T he two lands were united in B. He established a new administrative city where the Nile River branches out into the delta.
It remained the capital of Egypt for over 3, years.
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