Ancient Egypt was isolated from the rest of the world by its topography. To the west was a vast desert. To the north was the Mediterranean. To the east was the Red Sea. There were only two points of entry into Egypt aside from sea routes.

a. The south.

b. The Northeast.

The Nile is the longest river in the world. It flows from three branches: The Blue Nile, the White Nile and the Atbara. They join far south of Egypt to become a single river a mile wide.

The Nile was the lifeline of Egypt. It fashioned the nation's economy, determined its political structure, and molded the values it chose to live by.

Just as the surrounding deserts and oceans gave Egypt security, so the Nile gave Egypt prosperity. The Nile was almost wholly responsible for Egypt's economy.

a. It made Egypt an agricultural nation.

b. It determined all real estate values.

c. It provided transportation.

Because of the warm climate and the rich, fertile soil, the Egyptians were able to take life rather leisurely. This gave them time to engage in philosophy, religion, and developments in architecture, astronomy and mathematics.

Egypt sees very little rainfall. Its water comes from the mountains of Central Africa, many hundreds of miles to the south. This dry climate has brought the added benefit in the preservation of thousands of monuments and papyrus scrolls.

Many archaeologists used to mistakenly believe that the people of Palestine were mostly illiterate. The truth is that, except for a few areas around the shores of the Dead Sea, papyrus has a very short life span in Palestine due to its high humidity. The absence of papyrus documents in Palestine is not a sign of illiteracy, but only the lack of longevity in the documents.

Egypt did not suffer from this problem. The dry climate was perfect for the preservation of papyrus. It is for this reason that some of our oldest copies of the Bible were found in Egypt.

Like many people of the ancient world, the Egyptians had no unified time scale or way of referring to dates. Instead of having numbers to describe their years (May 7, 2000), they used several alternate means.

a. The naming of years.

b. Regal years.

c. Priestly records.

Egypt has yielded more in archaeological finds than any other area of the ancient world. Yet in spite of this, we have been limited in our understanding of Egyptian history.

The Egyptian did not emphasize originality or individuality. In his style of writing, he attempted to be like all other Egyptians and their ancestors as much as possible. It is not that we are unable to read his diary, it is that he writes the same thing that everyone else has written in their diaries.

The Egyptians never produced a native historian to evaluate or to give an objective account of their civilization. It was not until the Hellenistic Age when the Greek Ptolemies were ruling Egypt that her history began to be analyzed and interpreted by her own people.

The Egyptians used a solar rather than a lunar calendar. They had 365 days in their year and divided their year into 360 days of twelve equal 30-day months and then added five additional feast days at the end of each year. It was this same calendar that was adopted by Julius Caesar and made the official calendar of the Roman Empire. It is essentially the same calendar that we use today.

The Egyptian months were grouped into three seasons of 4 month durations:

The Egyptian astronomers were able to calculate and to keep records of three events.

These three events took place simultaneously once every 1460 years. Modern research has established that this event took place between 1325 and 1322 B.C. during the 19th dynasty of Egypt. This fact is confirmed by ancient scribal records (the previous cycle would have begun the Pyramid Age in 2785-2782 B.C.).

This was the northern kingdom. It was called "Lower Egypt" because it lay in the lowlands of the Delta region. Its capital was Pe.

The symbol for Lower Egypt was the papyrus reed which grew throughout the Delta. The king of Lower Egypt wore a red crown.

The southern kingdom was called "Upper Egypt" because it lay in the highlands to the south of the Delta. It stretched over a greater area, all the way to the First Cataract. Its capital was Hierakopolis.

The symbol for Upper Egypt was the white lily and the king of Upper Egypt wore a white crown.

Around 3000 B.C. Lower and Upper Egypt were finally welded into a single kingdom under one ruler. This was the result of conquest, but it served to bring peace and prosperity to the land.

Tradition has it that this new ruler was Pharaoh Menes, also known as Pharaoh Narmer. The capital of this new kingdom was Thes (located near Abydos), but was soon moved north to Memphis, 20 miles south of the Delta, where it remained for the next 600 years.

This period saw the building of many brick temples and palaces. Hieroglyphic writing was fully formulated and several fragmentary inscriptions from this period still exist.

The Pharaoh was considered to be a god. He was worshiped throughout the temples of Egypt. Because of this, no expense in serving the Pharaoh was considered too great, both in life and in death.

During the 1st and 2nd Dynasties, the Pharaohs had been buried in small brick structures called "mastabas." With the advent of this dynasty began the building of the pyramids.

The first Egyptian pyramid was the famous Step Pyramid. It was built by the imperial architect for Pharaoh Zoser, first ruler of the Third Dynasty. With its series of six terraces, it more closely resembled one of the ziggurats of Mesopotamia. However, the ziggurats were temples; the pyramids served as tombs.

This Dynasty saw the height of Egypt s prosperity. Pyramids assumed their more regular shape. The most famous of these being the great pyramids at Gizeh.

The pyramid of Khufu (called Cheops by the Greeks) was the largest to be built. It stood 480 feet high and was overlaid with a smooth facing of limestone. It was constructed with more than 2 million blocks of stone, most weighing about 2˝ tons. Although the core blocks were obtained locally, the granite face blocks were mined at Aswan, 500 miles to the south, and ferried down the Nile. These weighed up to 30 tons a piece.

With the advent of the Fifth Dynasty, Egypt began to show signs of trouble. The last two dynasties of Egypt would see a growing decline.

a. Religious problems.

b. Economic problems.

c. Political problems.

During this period, various bedouins began to filter into Egypt, pushed from the northeast by migration pressures that were taking place throughout the ancient world. It was during this period that Abraham visited Egypt during a time of famine in Canaan (Genesis 12:10).

It was during this First Intermediate Period that Egypt began its Pessimistic Literature. Finally a ruler arose at Thebes who succeeded in overcoming the other kingdoms and uniting Egypt under one government.

a. Political power.

b. Economic growth.

c. Military advances.

d. Growth in trade: They organized regular trade with the Minoans and the Phoenicians.

It was during this period that Joseph became the Prime Minister of Egypt and, under his influence, the Israelites were allowed to settle in the area of Goshen, on the eastern edge of the Delta.

Pharaoh Amenemhat 2nd was upon the throne of both Upper and Lower Egypt while Joseph was in the house of Potiphar. It was Amenemhat 2nd who had his butler and baker throne into prison with Joseph.

Sesostris 3rd became pharaoh in 1887 B.C. It may have been this new pharaoh who released the butler restoring him to service in the court while condemning the baker to death.

Two years later (1885 B.C.), Joseph was released from prison and instituted as the Prime Minister of Egypt, second only to the Pharaoh. It is noteworthy that the forces of Sesostris 3rd were the first to campaign in Palestine, raiding the region of "Sekmem in Retenu" (Shechem in Canaan?).

Sesostris 3rd also invaded Nubia, bringing back such wealth that gold became more common and therefore of less value than silver. When Joseph s brothers were accused of stealing a silver cup, it was the most valuable on in the household.

Sesostris 3rd reigned until the year 1849 B.C., well after the Israelites had settled in Egypt.

As the years passed and the Israelites began to prosper and multiply, a new king came to the throne of Egypt who was suspicious of these foreigners. There were several reasons for these suspicions:

a. They were foreigners.

b. They were shepherds.

c. They lived in Goshen.

d. Religious differences.

Amenemhet 3rd took the throne at the death of his father in 1849 B.C. His primary achievement was in developing an irrigation system. He ordered his officials at the Fortress of Senineh at the Second Cataract to record the height of the Nile each year so that he could more accurately plan for the economic needs of his country.

He developed a plan to irrigate the entire Fayum Basin, building a wall 27 miles long to control the flood waters and adding 27,000 acres of farmland. The following song, praising his benevolent accomplishments has been found:

As we read these words, we cannot help but wonder if this preoccupation with the agricultural economy looked back to the famine in the days of Joseph.

The Hyksos seem to have been a Semitic people who began filtering into Egypt near the end of the Middle Kingdom, about the same time that the Israelites were settling in Goshen.

The Bible treats these as silent years, telling us nothing of the history of the period.

With Egypt greatly weakened by the civil war, the Hyksos were able to move in and take control of the leadership of Lower Egypt. They were able to do this because of several military advantages.

The Egyptians were not advanced in the art of war. They fought almost nude, carrying heavy, man-sized shields. Their two primary weapons were the small axe and the light bow.

The Hyksos had the finest weapons in the world. They had come down from Padam-aram where they had enjoyed much contact with the Hittites who were the largest arms manufacturers in the ancient world at that time. Thus, they came into Egypt with the latest in modern weaponry.

a. Body armor which the Hittites had obtained from the Mycenaeans.

b. Long, slim swords and short daggers.

c. Powerful bows made of wood and horn.

d. The six-spoked, light, horse drawn chariot.

In spite of all their advances in warfare, the Hyksos did not succeed in advancing past Thebes. A resistance movement at Thebes managed to hold off the Hyksos for over 100 years.

The Hyksos now set up their own dynasty, ruling from Avaris. They set up military garrisons all along the Nile to protect their new holdings.

Other than this, they erected no monuments of which we are aware. Quite the contrary, they burned many books and objects of art.

Egyptian inscriptions describe the Hyksos as being a destructive race, matched only by the Assyrians for their cruelty. This is not too surprising when we consider that the Hyksos and the Assyrians were probably from the same stock. They are described as torturing their captives, cracking heads open, smashing teeth, gouging eyes out and hacking off arms and legs.

During this period of Hyksos domination, the Theban nobles had not been idle. Learning from their Semitic enemies, they began to train an army in the use of the war chariot and the short sword.

a. Senekenre.

b. Kamoses.

Ahmoses was the younger brother of Kamoses. After the death of his brother, Ahmoses completed the systematic expulsion of the Hyksos, driving them up into Palestine.

Returning to Egypt. Ahmoses found the country once again racked by civil war. Putting down all opposition, Ahmoses made himself the pharaoh of all Egypt.

Amenhotep was the son of Ahmoses. When he came to the throne following his father s death, he was faced with rebellion by the Nubians in the south and the Libyans in the west.

First, he marched south and defeated the Nubians, pushing them back to the 3rd cataract. Then he swung back around, conquering the Libyans in the west.

Back in Egypt, Amenhotep proved himself to be an able administrator. The government of Egypt was reorganized and order began to be restored. No trace of the old feudalism of the past was left in this reorganization. The rule of the pharaoh became absolute. After 21 years of rule, he died and his son came to the throne.

During the first year of his reign, Thutmoses had to put down a revolt in Nubia, marching all the way to the 4th cataract. Next, he led an expedition into Palestine, setting a precedent in the years to come.

The chariot became a regular part of the Egyptian military at this time (riding a horse was always repulsive to the Egyptians).

The kings of the 18th, 19th and 20th dynasties were buried here. A second valley to the southwest became known as the Valley of the Queens. It became the resting place of both queens, princes and other nobility.

Thutmoses had no surviving male heirs, hut he did have a daughter named Hatshepsut and an illegitimate son who took for himself the name Thutmoses 2nd, marrying Hatshepsut to legitimize his right to the throne.

Thutmoses 2nd was only 20 years old when he came to the throne. He was totally dominated by his energetic and ambitious wife. When the Nubians revolted, Thutmoses II stayed home while his army went out and put down the revolt.

a. Moses.

b. Quest for an heir.

Thutmoses 3rd was still under age when his father died after a short reign. Therefore his mother assumed the throne in his place, taking the position of regent, but effectively acting as pharaoh and even wearing the ceremonial beard of the pharaohs (Egyptians were clean-shaven, so the wearing of a ceremonial beard was not unusual).

There had been no love lost between Thutmoses 3rd and his step-mother. The first thing he did upon her death was to destroy or obliterate all of her monuments. We would know nothing of her at all were it not for the fact that some of the concealing plaster had fallen off certain monuments.

If Moses was still in Egypt at this time, then we could understand how the incident of the murder of the Egyptian taskmaster might be all that Thutmoses 3rd needed in the way of an excuse to rid himself of this past rival.

Thutmoses 3rd has been called the Napoleon of Egypt. Like Napoleon, his mummy shows him to have been a short man in stature. Also like Napoleon, he was the greatest military strategist that his country ever produced. In a period of 19 years, he made 17 military campaigns into Palestine and Syria, defeating the Kingdom of Mitanni and beating the cities of Syria into submission. Unlike Napoleon, he never lost a battle.

Amenhotep 2nd was tall and broad in physique. He was reputed to be one of the best charioteers in all of Egypt. It was said that no man could draw his bow.

a. Campaign into Palestine.

b. Building projects.

If we are to accept the Massoretic text, then it seems that it would have been early in the reign of Amnenhotep 2nd when Moses and Aaron entered his courts with the demand that the people of Israel be released.

It was against this Egypt, an empire at the very peak of its glory and strength — that the Lord sent the ten plagues which would leave Egypt a ruin from which she would never fully recover.

There were three primary purposes that God had for sending these terrible plagues upon Egypt.

This is the God that we worship today. He is not a God who doesn t like to rock the boat. He is not a little God who can only answer little prayers. He is not aGod who has taken a long walk and who hasn t come back yet. We worship a God who is there and who is not silent and who has intervened in history.

Egypt never fully recovered from the disasters which she had met in the ten plagues. From this point onward, she would begin to decline.

His army devastated in the Red Sea, Amenhotep 2nd never against led a campaign out of the boundaries of Egypt.

Thutmoses 4th remained on the throne for only eight years, dying at the young age of 30.

His best known monument is a stone which he erected between the paws of the Great Sphinx during the first year of his reign. On the stone he records how a prophet had appeared to him many years before in a dream and told him that he would someday rule Egypt in place of his older brother. He was also told that when he had become a pharaoh, he must remove the mountain of sand which almost covered the Sphinx. It is interesting to note that the older brother of Thutmoses 4th would have died in the plague of the firstborn.

Thutmoses 4th found himself facing the rising power of the Kingdom of Mitanni, located on the plains of northern Syria. Instead of attempting a dangerous war, Thutmoses entered into a political alliance with Mitanni, sealing it with his marriage to Mutemwiya, a princess of Mitanni. He also entered into a treaty with Babylon.

The military power of Egypt continued to decline during the reign of Amenhotep 3rd. In fact, he conducted only one campaign during his reign. The was against the Nubians in the fifth year of his reign.

The Tell el-Amarna Tablets date from his reign. Among these inscriptions are a number of letters from the king of Jerusalem to Amenhotep 3rd asking for help against invaders known as the Habiru.

The Habiru were not a specific racial group, but rather were thought of as barbarians. These particular Habiru may have been the Israelites under Joshua who were now moving into Canaan and taking the land. Because of her military decline, Egypt made no attempt at intervention.

Amenhotep 3rd went against tradition by marrying Tiye, the daughter of a commoner. It was highly unusual for a commoner to be chosen as the wife of a pharaoh and Queen Tiye was expressly called the First Wife of the King. They named their son and heir Amenhotep 4th.

Amenhotep 4th has the distinction of being the first pharaoh of Egypt to be a monotheist. He chose to worship only one god Aton, the sun god, as the creator and sustainer of the universe.

a. Physique and character.

b. A new name.

c. Religious reform.

d. Incest.

e. His death.

Akhenaton had no sons to succeed him, but he had seven daughters who were married to various Egyptian nobles. Disputes over succession arose and the country was plunged into civil war.

The civil war came to a close when the new husband of Ankhesenpatori was placed upon the throne by the priests of Egypt. The young king Tutankhaton was only nine years old. His bride and queen, Ankhesenipaton was fourteen.

With the new boy-king and his bride upon the throne, Egypt returned to modicum of stability.

a. Religious return.

b. Political strength.

c. An archaeological treasure.

d. Death.

Although Ay had been the co-regent of Tutankhamun, his position on the throne of Egypt was somewhat unstable. In order to secure that position, he tried to marry Ankhesenamun, the wife of the late pharaoh.

Queen Ankhesenamun had other ideas. She sent a letter to Suppiluliumas, king of the Hittites, requesting that he send one of his sons to Egypt to marry her and thereby become pharaoh. We have recovered a portion of the letter.

After the Hittite king had thoroughly investigated the situation, a Hittite prince was sent to Egypt. Before he arrived, his company was ambushed and he was killed. Soon after this, Ankhesenaraun was murdered.

Egypt now stood balanced on the brink of collapse. The last few pharaohs had shown little interest in the administration and this only served to add to the troubled situation. Only a small spark would have been necessary to plunge Egypt into revolution and civil war.

Into this picture stepped a deliverer who was to prove strong enough to stabilize the desperate situation.

Horemhab was the Commander-in-chief of the Egyptian army. Following the assassination of Ay, he marched his army to Thebes where he had himself crowned king.

As pharaoh, he began a campaign designed to restore to Egypt the power and prosperity that she had enjoyed in the days of Thutmoses 3rd.

a. Legal reforms.

b. Military career.

c. Economic policies.

Rameses was an old man when he came to the throne. He died after a short reign, and was succeeded by his son Seti.

Seti began his reign with a project designed to build up the sagging military. The Bedouin tribes in the Sinai desert had been threatening the boarders of Egypt.

After driving back the Bedouins, Seti advanced northward along the coast of Canaan, defeating several cities in northern Palestine and Syria, including Tyre and Kadesh. It was only a matter of time before the Egyptians clashed with the Hittites.

When Seti did clash with the Hittites, the result was indecisive. A temporary truce was made and both sides withdrew t prepare for future warfare. When the war finally did come, it was not Seti who was the pharaoh of Egypt, but his son, Rameses 2nd.

Rameses 2nd was to be the most colorful leader that Egypt ever produced, not because of his great military prowess (which is questionable) or even his building accomplishments (which are extensive), but because he had an excellent public relations program.

a. The Battle of Kadesh.

b. The results of the Battle of Kadesh.

c. Building programs.

d. The beginnings of decline.

Since Rameses had outlived many of his 79 sons, it was his 13th son who came to the throne under the name Merenptah.

a. Conflict with Lybians.

b. The Merenptah Stele.

Rarneses 3rd came to the throne at a time in history when the Dark Ages were beginning to sweep over the ancient world.

Rameses 3rd refers to these invaders as the "Sea Peoples." Their force was made up of Minoans, Mycenaeans, Hittites, and even Berber tribes from the west who sought to take advantage of this opportunity.

Rameses had two decisive advantages in the Battle of the Sea Peoples which was fought in the Delta.

a. Superior weapons.

b. Naval maneuverability.

Because of these two factors, Rameses 3rd was successful in driving back the invaders from the north. However, he had paid a dear price. Egypt was completely exhausted by the war. Weakened as she was, she was riot able to reasert her authority in Palestine. In compromise, she invited the Sea Peoples to settle among the Philistines, thereby making them a buffer-state to the outside world.

Every pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty to succeed Rameses 3rd took for himself the great name of Rameses, that being their only claim to fame.

Solomon made a treaty with Egypt, sealing it by a diplomatic marriage with a daughter of Siamun, the reigning pharaoh. The city of Gezer was given to Solomon as a dowry.

Normally it was the practice of the pharaohs to receive the daughters of other rulers into their own harem. For Solomon to take the pharaoh s daughter as his wife indicated that Israel was being treated as a political super—power.

Shishak, a chief of the Libyans, was also the founder of the 22nd Dynasty. Rising to power at the death of a previous pharaoh, he managed to bring all of Egypt under his rule by appointing one of his sons as the high priest.

He granted refuge to Jeroboam, a political refugee from Israel, and learned of the divisive attitudes that were growing in Israel.

Shortly after the nation of Israel divided, Shishak invaded the Southern Kingdom under Rehohoam.

The south wall at the Temple of Amun in Karnak names many of the towns in Palestine which were plundered in this inivasion.

The later Dynasties of Egypt were still weaker. For a time, Ethiopia ruled over Egypt and an Ethiopian pharaoh sat upon the throne. During the days of Asa, the armies of the Ethiopians attempted to invade Judah, but were driven back with heavy casualties (2nd Chronicles 14:9-13).

The Third Intermediate Period ended, but instead of bringing a time of strength, it brought further troubles for Egypt. This was the Era of the Empires. A steady succession of empires now arose from Assyria, Babylon, Persia and finally Greece. Armies from each of these empires would march across Egyptian soil until Egypt would become a mere vassal state.