Old Kingdom of Egypt
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
The Old Kingdom is the name for Egypt during the 3rd millennium BC when the civilization of Egypt had its first peak. It was the first of three so-called "Kingdom" periods, which mark the high points of civilization in the lower Nile Valley (the others being Middle Kingdom and the New Kingdom).
Old Kingdom means the period of time when Egypt was ruled by the Third Dynasty through to the Sixth Dynasty (2686 BC – 2134 BC). Many Egyptologists also include the Memphite Seventh and Eighth Dynasties in the Old Kingdom as a continuation of the administration centralized at Memphis. The Old Kingdom was followed by a period of disunity and relative cultural decline that is called the First Intermediate Period by Egyptologists.
The royal capital of Egypt during the Old Kingdom was at Memphis. The Old Kingdom is perhaps best known, however, for the large number of pyramids, which were build at this time as pharaonic burial places. For this reason, the Old Kingdom is often called "the Age of the Pyramids."
[change] Further reading
- Jaromir Malek, In the Shadow of the Pyramids: Egypt During the Old Kingdom, University of Oklahoma Press, 1986. ISBN 0-8061-2027-4
- Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999. ISBN 0-87099-906-0 (catalogue for travelling exhibition of the same name)
[change] Other websites
- Middle East on the Matrix: Egypt, The Old Kingdom — Photographs of many of the historic sites dating from the Old Kingdom
- Old Kingdom of Egypt- Aldokkan
