Essay Database

The more than 3000 year long history of Ancient Egypt has been divided into 8 or 9 periods, sometimes called Kingdoms. This modern-day division is somewhat arbitrarily based on the country's unity and wealth and the power of the central government. The Ancient Egyptians themselves did not group their rulers according to such criteria. They rather seem to have developed the notion of dynasties throughout their history. The Palermo Stone simply lists the kings one after the other, …

…on the length of the reign of a king may follow and this discussion may show the likelyhood that this king reigned longer or shorter than the dates linked to his reign. It can thus not be stressed enough that the provided dates are just a frame of reference helping visitors to gain insight in the sequence of events and occurences and to have an approximate idea of the age of certain monuments and artefacts.