Egypt in 2500 BC

Built in the -2500s.

Note: This is so far back in time that dates can be off by up to 100 years or so. I follow the dates in “The Princeton Dictionary of Ancient Egypt” (2008) by Ian Shaw and Paul Nicholson. 

• Location: north-eastern Africa, the last 1,000 km of the Nile where ships can freely sail north of the rocky Cataracts.
• Population: about 1 million.
• Major cities: Memphis (capital)
• Language: Old Egyptian – in hieroglyphic writing, now in classic form and representing the spoken language.
• Religion: idol worship in temples of Horus, Ra, Osiris, Seth, etc. Rise of the sun god Ra, solar religion, and pyramids. Djedefra becomes the first pharaoh with Ra as part of his name. Ra will become the top god in the next dynasty.
• Government: Shepseskaf, last god-king of the 4th Dynasty.
• Economy: Command economy. Wheat, barley, cattle, sheep, goats, pyramids. Gold from Nubia, copper from Sinai, wine and oil from Palestine, cedar wood from Byblos. Some were slaves, most were serfs working for the god-king or one of his minions.
• Currency: none.
• Transport: Nile River, sail boats, barges, donkeys. Roads and wheel transport are rare, camels unknown.
• Technology: irrigation, mud bricks, copper (stiffened with arsenic, bronze not yet in common use), paper. Newish: stone buildings, pyramids, clear glass.

Left to right: the pyramids (the now-empty tombs) of Khufu, his son Khafra, and his grandson Menkaure. All built in the -2500s. Behind is the city of Cairo in +2008.

The last 100 years: the -2500s:

• Kings:
  • 4th Dynasty: Sneferu, Khufu (Cheops), Djedefra (Radjedef), Khafra (Chephren), Menkaura (Mycerinus), Shepseskaf – all of the  4th Dynasty except for the first 13 years and the last 2.
• Best known for:
  • The Great Pyramid of Giza – built by Khufu as his tomb. The tallest building in the world for the next 3,800 years. It stood 146.6 metres tall when first built, about half as tall as the Eiffel Tower (300 m). The top is gone so now it is only 137.5 m, just about as high as the torch of the Statue of Liberty (139 m). The Great Pyramid was smooth and white till medieval times when the outer limestone covering was stripped off to build the city of Cairo. Despite his huge pyramid, we know little about Khufu. Egyptians in later times said he and his son Khafra were cruel, that his grandson Menkaure, who built a much smaller pyramid, was kind.
  • The Great Sphinx (pictured at top) was built by Khafra, Khufu’s son. A sphinx is a lion with a human head. It represents the king and his power. The Great Sphinx probably has the head of Khafra himself. The nose was destroyed in +1378 by religious fanatics.
• Slavery – there were slaves in Egypt at this time, mainly Asian prisoners of war, but nowhere near enough to build pyramids. Unlike the US in the +1800s, Egypt in the -2500s was not built on slavery, nor were slaves a separate caste. Most people were what we would call serfs – tied to the land (by tradition and circumstance) but not bought or sold separately. Many were forced to work on pyramids in the off-season in place of taxes. The off-season was when the Nile was flooded, making farmwork impossible – and moving huge stone blocks to the edge of the desert (where the pyramids stood) much easier.

Meanwhile in Britain, brown-skinned people like the Whitehawk Woman are working on the third version of Stonehenge, replacing wood with stone!

– Abagond, +2023. 

See also:

• Egyptian century of the week
  • Egypt in 3100 BC
  • Egypt in 3000 BC
  • Egypt in 2900 BC
  • Egypt in 2800 BC
  • Egypt in 2700 BC
  • Egypt in 2600 BC
  • Egypt
  • Egypt: a brief history
  • Ancient Egypt
• Egyptian
  • Egyptian hieroglyphics
• Egyptian gods
  • Horus
  • Seth
  • Ra
  • Isis
  • Amun
• The Sphinx’s nose
• slaveries compared
• Ancient Egypt and ancient astronauts
• The British
  • The British through time: the last 10,000 years
  • Whitehawk Woman
  • Stonehenge
• Statue of Liberty

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