Second Intermediate Period of Egypt | Discover the secrets of the Second Transition Era in Ancient Egypt History and facts about the most important transitional periods of the Pharaonic civilization, the decline and wars, the names of the Egyptian Pharaohs kings and Female Pharaohs, and how they contributed to the decline of the Pharaonic civilization.
By the end of the rule of King Yaqub-Har, the last king of the Fourteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Egypt began to enter the era of the second transition, known as the era of the second decline.
Ancient Egypt was exposed to many internal Revolutions in Ancient Egypt, the weakness of the Military of ancient Egypt, the deterioration of Ancient Egyptian Literature and Ancient Egyptian science, and exposure to wars of all kinds.
The southern, eastern and western borders of Egypt until the beginning of the rule of King Khyan of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt, then the Sixteenth Dynasty of Egypt under the rule of King Merankhre Mentuhotep VI, then the Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt under the rule of King Kamose, who expelled the Hyksos to enter Egypt in the era of The New Kingdom in ancient Egypt, the beginning of the rule of King Ahmose I with his wife Queen Ahmose Nefertar of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt..
Second Intermediate Period of Egypt Facts:
The Two Dynasties Stage (13, 14):
Where weakness began to creep into the kings of the Pharaohs, the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt and the Fourteenth Egyptian Dynasty, and the ministers were the holders of power in the country and rule in ancient Egypt “Ancient Egyptian Government“.
Dissolution appeared in the economic structures and Trade in Ancient Egypt and the country’s politics, especially in the formation of Social Structure in Ancient Egypt, and the cradle of this situation. The Hyksos occupation of Egypt.
The Thirteenth Dynasty ruled in the city of Thebes “Luxor” in southern Egypt (1783-1649) BC, and the Fourteenth Dynasty ruled in the city of Sakha in the Delta on the banks of the Nile River.
Hyksos stage (15, 16): Second Intermediate Period of Egypt
They are the Bedouins who came from the East, and the word Hyksos means (shepherd kings), but in the Ancient Egyptian Language (Heikal – Khasut), which means (foreign leaders).
The Hyksos invasion of Egypt had benefits as well as harms, the most important of which was contact with Asia, stimulating Egypt into a new global phase, and giving a new charge to Egypt’s spiritual and cultural life, the results of which would appear in the New Kingdom.
Kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty ruled from the eastern Delta (Awaris).
The kings of the Sixteenth Dynasty ruled from Thebes in the south.
17th Dynasty | Second Intermediate Period of Egypt
The stage of the Kingdom of Thebes and the expulsion of the Hyksos.
16 kings ruled there, none of whom gained true independence except the three late kings in the era of the Second Decline. Most of them were subordinate to the Hyksos, but some of them were able to organize the region of Upper Egypt according to the Geography of ancient Egypt and motivated them to liberate.
The era of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, the beginning of the rule of King Mentuhotep I of the Eleventh Dynasty of Egypt, was extremely turbulent and lacked the stability, calm, and sober construction that prevailed in the Old Kingdom of Egypt at the beginning of the rule of King Djoser of the Third Dynasty of Egypt.
The political and social changes of Second Intermediate Period of Egypt were reflected in the spiritual beliefs and religion, as in the Ancient Egyptian religion.
The doctrines of eschatology (funeral) were clearly influenced by the Second Decline; After it was limited in the Old Kingdom (Pyramid Texts) to kings in the stages after death and the companionship and care of God Ra for them, the most famous ancient Egyptian deities, the Egyptian individual now receives such care and these royal privileges, especially in the Coronation of the Pharaohs. Thus, the Pyramid Texts began to be engraved on the inner walls of the Pharaonic Ancient Egyptian Coffins, thus creating what is called (the Coffin Texts).
It followed that the popular God Osiris took a greater role in life after death because he was the patron saint of ordinary people and his worship was more widespread among the common people than among kings.
The second era of decay gradually paved the way for the life after death to shift from the custody of (Ra) to the custody of (Osiris), until he became the greatest god of the kingdom of the dead during the era of the Middle Kingdom. If we consider the god (Ra) to be the national god of Egypt in the Old Kingdom, then God Osiris became its national god in the era of the Middle Kingdom.
Second Intermediate Period of Egypt, the religious pilgrimage route shifted from the city of On, “the city of Heliopolis,” where Ra was worshiped, to the city of Abydos in Sohag, southern Egypt, where it was believed that his main grave was there. The wish is to leave behind at least some evidence of his presence in Abydos.
Therefore, countless numbers of Masrat were found within the Holy Sanctuary. Abydos became the greatest religious center in Egypt, which explains the ferocity with which the Hieroglyphs and Thebans fought to control it.
In Second Intermediate Period of Egypt of the second decline, the idea of punishment and reward after death appeared and was mixed with magic, as in the stories of the Egyptian Mythology and Magic in ancient Egypt.
Then the idea of the court of the dead and the application of the Law in Ancient Egypt, symbolized by the god Maat, gradually crystallized in Egyptian theology.
This long scenario emerged for the treatment of the dead immediately after death. One of the direct results of the destabilization of the status of the god (Ra) and the export of the popular trend in worship was the spread of deities of little importance during the era of the Old Kingdom, such as Webuawit in Asyut, or the God Khnum on the Elephantine Island (the Temple of Khnum in Elephantine Island) in Aswan, or the God Montu in the Karnak Temple complex in Luxor.
In Thebes, who became the falcon God Horus mixed with the god Ra and gained the great title (the fighting god).
These important developments in the Egyptian religion that took place in the Middle Ages had a great impact in reformulating this religion and injecting it with new stimulants, in addition to the fertile cross-fertilization that occurred before and after the Hyksos invasion, which introduced new Asian elements into the Egyptian religion.
