Home > Second Intermediate Period of Egypt

The brilliant Egyptian Twelfth Dynasty came to an end around 1786 BC, and was succeeded by the much weaker Thirteenth . Both ruled from Itjtaway ("Seizer-of-the-Two-Lands") near Memphis and el-Lisht , just south of the apex of the Nile Delta. The Thirteenth Dynasty proved unable to hold onto the long land of Egypt, and the provincial ruling family in Xois , located in the marshes of the western Delta, broke away from the central authority to form the Fourteenth Dynasty . The splintering of the land accelerated after the reign of the Thirteenth Dynasty king Neferhotep I .

It was during the reign of his brother and successor, Sobekhotep IV , that the Hyksos made their first appearance, and around 1720 BC took control of the town of Avaris (the modern Tell ed-Dab'a /Khata'na), a few miles from Qantir. The outlines of the traditional account of the "invasion" of the land by the Hyksos is preserved in the Aegyptiaca of Manetho, an Egyptian priest who wrote in the time of Ptolemy II Philadelphus. Manetho recorded that it was during the reign of one "Tutimaios" (who has been identified with Dudimose I of the Fourteenth Dynasty) that the Hyksos overran Egypt, led by Salitis , the founder of the Fifteenth Dynasty. This dynasty was succeeded by a group of Hyksos princes and chieftains, who ruled in the eastern Delta with their local Egyptian vassals, and are known primarily by scarabs inscribed with their names, called by modern Egyptologists the Sixteenth Dynasty.

The later kings of the Thirteenth Dynasty appear to be only ephemeral monarchs under the control of a powerful line of viziers, and indeed it has been suggested that the kingship in this period might have been elective if not actually appointive. One monarch late in the dynasty, Wahibra Yayebi , may have even been a former vizier. Beginning with the reign of Sobekhotep IV, the power of this dynasty, weak to begin with, deteriorated. The later king Merneferre Ai (ruled c. 1700 BC19th century BC 18th century BC 17th century BC other centuries) ( 3rd millennium BC 2nd millennium BC 1st millennium BC) Events 1787 1784 BC Amorite conquests of Uruk and Isin 1786 BC Egypt: End of Twelfth Dynasty, start of Thirteenth Dynasty, start of F) appears to have been a mere vassal of the Hyksos princes ruling there; his successors held onto their diminished office until c. 1633 BCCenturies: 18th century BC 17th century BC 15th century BC Decades: 1680s BC 1670s BC 1660s BC 1650s BC 1640s BC 1630s BC 1620s BC 1610s BC 1600s BC 1590s BC 1580s BC Events and trends Egypt: End of Thirteenth Dynasty Significant people 1630s BC..

Around the time Memphis and It-tawy fell to the Hyksos, the native Egyptian ruling house in ThebesFor the ancient capital of Boeotia, see Thebes, Greece. Thebes (also known as Niut Ammon was the capital of Egypt during the period of the Middle and New Kingdoms. Located on the banks of the Nile — with temples, palaces, and the city of the living on the declared its independence from the vassal dynasty in It-tawy and set itself up as the Seventeenth Dynasty . 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 last kings of this dynasty were Tao II the Brave and KamoseKamose was the last king of the Theban Seventeenth Dynasty. He was the son of Sekenenra Tao II and the brother of Ahmose, founder of the Dynasty. His reign fell at the end of the Second Intermediate Period; it is uncertain when Kamose died, but reliable s, whom tradition credited with the final defeat of the Hyksos. With the Eighteenth DynastyThe Eighteenth Dynasty was founded by Ahmose, the son of Kamose, the last ruler of the Seventeenth Dynasty. Ahmose finished the campaign to expel the hated Hyksos rulers. With this dynasty, the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt ended, and the New Kingdo, the New Kingdom begins.