The collapse of the Old Kingdom had all the indications of being quite fast and complete. Some attribute this to the rise in power of local barons or chieftans who wanted to throw off the totalitarian leadership of the king. Others have pointed to the end of the Neolithic Wet Phase c.2350. This brought to Egypt famine, dust storms, and plague. To these early Egyptians, this must have seemed like the end of the world, and the ancient belief that the king personafied the control of the weather, led to the loss of faith in the kingship.

During this dark age of Egypt, surviving records show a dismal scene for the people. Tales appear of bands of starving people roaming the countryside looking for food. There are even at least one instance of cannibalism. One quote describing the heavy sand storms of this time goes as follows, "the sun is blocked and will not shine that men may see...none may know that it is midday, and the sun will cast no shadow".

The kings lists for the Sixth and Seventh Dynasties show many kings ruling for only a year or two before being deposed of for not fixing the weather. It would seem that there was a total loss of faith in the power of the king and the larger landowners assumed power around their estates. These landowners took to fighting against natives, Lybians, and Asiatics alike to defend their own intrests in these times...notably without the king's approval. On their tombs, they boast of their organization and strength of leadership to keep their people alive during these troubled times. The monuments of this time also are only sparse copies of the great ones of the Old Kingdom. They used cheaper more fragile materials for these shadows of the past, clay pottery or wood -for instance- instead of stone.

With famine spreading across the region and with Egypt divided against themselves, the door for foreigners to enter the country was wide open. This is the first recorded occurance of what would be common as time went on, foreign immigrations in times of famine in the manner of Abraham and Jacob of the Bible.

Some manner of recovery was achieved by a pwerful family who thought themselves the rightful descendants of Pepy II and so they even took his namme into theirs. They ruled around Herakleopolis which was situated near the Delta region. They drove out the Asiatics, strengthed the borders, re-established the power of Memphis, and reconstructed the public works. A rival power in Thebes maintained independence from Abydos to Elephantine (the south). It was a matter a time before the two powers came into conflict with each other and it was won by the southern ruler named Mentuhotep II, which united Egypt once again.

The once supreme power of the king was now greatly lessened as shown by the burial practices of this time. Whereas the promise of eternal life was greatly restricted to the king and his close persons, it was now extended to anyone who had done what was good and rightous in their life on Earth. Also, where before eternal life was automatically given to the king upon death, now he and everyone else had to stand before the gods and answer for their actions. These changes give evidence of the new wave of freedom of thought which came out of this period. Even literature, which had been restricted to religous texts, now show a secular side.

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