1706–2111 AM · ≈ 2055 BCE — 1650 BCE · world history
The Middle Kingdom
After a century and a half of collapse, Egypt gathers itself anew around the kings of Thebes.
The Old Kingdom ended in famine and disorder: the Nile floods weakened, the provincial governors ruled for themselves, the country split into north and south. Mentuhotep of Thebes joins it together again, and the kings of the next dynasty build fortresses in Nubia, drain the Fayum and move the capital closer to the delta. This is the age of Egyptian classics: the Tale of Sinuhe, the instructions, the finest sculpture. On tomb walls at Beni Hasan a caravan of Semites entering Egypt is painted — an ordinary scene, in those centuries, of people moving from the east into the Nile valley.