Second Intermediate Period and the Hyksos

Second Intermediate Period marks a period when Ancient Egypt erstwhile again fell into disorder between the end of the Middle Kingdom, and the begin of the New Kingdom. This period is greatest known as the time the Hyksos (an Asiatic people) made their appearing in Egypt, the reigns of its kings comprising the Fifteenth and Dynasties 16. The Dynasty 13 proved unable to hold onto the risky land of Egypt, and a rustic governing family located in the marshlands of the west Delta at Xois broke away from the central authority to form the Fourteenth Dynasty. The splintering of the land accelerated after the rule of the Thirteenth Dynasty pharaoh Neferhotep I.

Hyksos first seem during the rule of the Dynasty 13 pharaoh Sobekhotep IV, and by 1720 BC took hold of the town of Avaris. The schemes of the established account of the "invasion" of the land by the Hyksos is kept in the Aegyptiaca of Manetho, who records that during this time the Hyksos overran Egypt, led by Salitis, the founder of the Dynasty 15. In the last decades, however, the thought of a simple migration, with little or no force involved, has got some support. Under this theory, the Egyptian swayer of Dynasty 13 were unable to stop these new migrants from travelling to Egypt from Asia because they were standard kings who were struggling to cope with various domestic troubles including possibly famine. The Hyksos princes and chieftains ruled in the east Delta with their local Egyptian vassals. The Hyksos Fifteenth Dynasty rulers showed their capital and seat of government at Memphis and their summertime residence at Avaris. The Hyksos kingdom was cantered in the eastern Nile Delta and Middle Egypt and was limited in size, never passing south into Upper Egypt, which was under hold by Theban-based swayer. Hyksos telling with the south seem to have been primarily of a commercial nature, although Theban princes appear to have knew the Hyksos rulers and may perhaps have provided them with protection for a period.

About the time Memphis fell to the Hyksos, the native Egyptian ruling house in Thebes held its independence from the vassal dynasty in Itj-tawy and set itself up as the Dynasty 17. This dynasty was to prove the salvation of Egypt and would eventually lead the war of liberation that drove the Hyksos back into Asia. The two close kings of this dynasty were Tao II the Brave and Kamose. Ahmose I completed the conquering and expulsion of the Hyksos from the delta region, restored Theban rule over the whole of Egypt and successfully confirmed Egyptian power in its once subject districts of Nubia and Canaan. His reign marks this beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty and the New Kingdom.

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