From its earliest origins to the last breath of the great Cleopatra and later Roman Emperors, this land of a thousand marvels was a cultural and religious haven for those who lived there. Through this journey through the history of Pharaonic Egypt relive the past to feel at least a few hours of episodes of this great empire by which all feel great admiration and deep respect.

The history of ancient Egypt is the largest of all the other civilizations, from predynastic times in the beginning to the Romans in their final. Since her study can not be covered in so few lines, it takes several chapters to include it in general and for the same reason you can not study each and every king's reign with great detail. Following this order of ideas, will be published consecutively in these chapters chronologically to form a series that will give the student the opportunity to meet, at least globally, the most important events of ancient Egypt.

The birth of an empire

Since approximately 3500 BC, the first nomadic tribes roamed near the banks of the Nile River Over time these ethnic groups were established securely in different parts of the geography of the valley in northern Africa since the natural resources that allowed to survive were very hopeful there.

In the same way they were established, they became increasingly larger groups and developed and, in the same way it was growing rivalry between the north and south of the Nile to generate political conflicts, religious and military domination of one on the other.

The identity of Egypt at his birth had not manifested itself as a united territory as it was millennia later. To the north was called Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt to the south. Both territories were separate and distinct from each other. Ie the union of these two territories that initiated the rule was established there. But this union was not possible without the flow of blood because as previously stated, both poles competed on many occasions.

The 3150 BC was the time of unification of Egypt and therefore, the beginning of dynastic succession. Predynastic Empire Dynasty is between 0 to Dynasty II being the first birth of the Egyptian empire unified.

The author or authors of that union still not very clear because the time has that story very well guarded. However, Egyptologists each day a little more able to unravel the past to know the origin of one of the most powerful civilizations of the past.

Even written records are insufficient to determine the origin of the first inhabitants of this land. Even at the time of the pharaohs the Egyptians knew the dates by regnal lists. For example, in the temple of Seti I, father of Ramses II, both of the nineteenth dynasty is a list with the names of the rulers of Egypt in different periods of his reign. Thus, the ancient Egyptians had registered the kings who ruled in its territory. During the time of the Ptolemies, a scribe named Manetho has dedicated himself to a play called the Egyptiaca. It was a list of all the rulers of antiquity. Unfortunately Manetho's work has not been found and what remains are translations done by other authors. Nevertheless, it is still impossible to say with certainty who was the unifier of Upper and Lower Egypt. Then, the arrival of Christians in this country fell silent for many centuries until modern times, the stories Pharaonic temple walls through the prohibition of speech Egyptian hieroglyphic writing and worship in the ancient temples on the grounds pagans. Then, in 1799 a rock found in the official Rosetta Bouchard engineers belonging to Napoleon's expeditionary force was key to return to life the ancient Egyptian symbols. In the so-called Rosetta Stone was inscribed with a text in three different languages, in hieroglyphic, in demotic and Greek. The deciphering of the Rosetta Stone by Jean Francois Champollion illustrates the September 14, 1822, was the key to the reconstruction of Egyptian history that for centuries remained tight even for the natives of that desert place.

Thanks to Champollion was able to read hieroglyphics abundant in ancient monuments built by the Pharaohs. The race to discover the past was immediate. Part of the research was indoctrinated in the search for the beginnings of that wonderful civilization. The research pointed to a king called Menes as the first king of Egypt. However, reading beyond the walls of temples, the attempt to discover the name of the first Pharaoh is still not easy, for the year 1898 AD was found ceremonial makeup palette. On one side of the trowel slate is a pharaoh with the white crown of Upper Egypt. In his hand he has a hammer ready to strike a prisoner. The scene represents the results of a battle. On the other side of the palette appears the king wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt inspecting a row of decapitated enemies. The king in the palette Narmer has been identified as the inscription on the top of each side. But in the king lists of Abydos and do not speak of any King Narmer, Menes but as the founder of Egypt. This discrepancy is even speculation that the ancient Egyptians were unsure of the true unifier of the Two Lands is also known as the Egypt of old. Ten meters from the Narmer Palette found a huge deck with a ritual scene even more intriguing to researchers. It is the image of a man with the white crown by assuming that this character was a king of Upper Egypt. The images seem to represent the inauguration of an irrigation canal. Faced with this king is at a scorpion on his face. The top of the mace has carved a lapwing representative of several sites in Egypt. Being hung by the neck seem to represent the conquered territories. The character of the club has been given the name of Scorpion King by the spider in front of him. Also talked about the possibility that this character was mythological but excavations at Abydos have made possible the discovery of a tomb connected with Scorpio. In this grave were found several objects, including hundreds of vessels from Palestine, which suggests that the tomb owner was a very powerful person.

In the largest chamber of the tomb was found a staff showing that the tomb is of a king. This symbol was used by the Pharaohs throughout Egyptian history later as a symbol of power and domination. Among the objects found in this tomb are the vessels, some of them broken. In the burial of old got used to mark the vessels with the king's name to which they belonged. The interesting thing is that these vessels have drawn images of a scorpion and such iconography in these pieces suggests that Scorpio really existed.

All research is trying to verify whether or Scorpion Narmer was the founder of Egypt, but even though there is no absolute certainty is believed that the founder was Scorpion because unlike Narmer Palette, the ceremonial mace Scorpion does not appear to two crowns to show that he is the ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt, making it very possible that he has unified the two territories. For this reason alone would carry the crown of his kingdom, the white of Upper Egypt, and not the red crown of the kingdom conquered. Instead, Narmer is represented in its palette with the white crown of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt Red by suggesting that the territory over which he ruled and was unified and only reaffirmed its authority over some riots. If this is indeed so, would follow a Scorpion Narmer who would become the founder of the Dynasty 0 and the Egyptian empire.

This theory is strengthened when followed in the study of the founder of the dynasty pharaoh I, after the Scorpion and Narmer. It is known that the successor of Narmer was Aha. The king took the name of Men and returning to take into account the actual lists of the pharaohs, if released the names of Men and Menes is their similarity, perhaps even were the same person.

It is known that Men had to carry out military campaigns in Nubia. The consequences were what made this practice was copied by his successors constitute the military sector as a key factor in the economy of Egypt. A Men also goes to the construction of the first Egyptian capital, Memphis, whose location was selected by geographic strategies.

After the death of Men, Dyer became pharaoh. Later his wife made co-regent for some time to deliver the kingdom to Uadyi and the latter at Den at the time of his death. During these periods became common satellite burials consisted of burying the servants of monarchs very close to them. This practice does not mean that after the king died spent 10 years for example and when one of his servants died was buried next to the monarch. In fact, when the pharaoh died his servants were also buried with him. This was something of a murder-suicide that the servant was willing to go serve his king even further. Fortunately this practice was abandoned and replaced by the inclusion of shabtis, some figures are representative of workers who would serve the king in the realm of the dead.

After the death of Den was Andyib the new governor of the Two Lands. However, Andyib had to fight in war, this time not to conquer enemy territory but within Egypt itself in a clash north against the south. After the death of Andyib, Semerjet became king. During his reign were the first practice of counterfeiting of works, among the pharaohs of antiquity became commonplace. During the reign of his successor Qaa, it is possible that they have new battles between the Upper and Lower Egypt as a stele found in his tomb but he suggests that despite its victory in the war, that is, the triumph of the High on Lower Egypt, at his death was a rupture dynasty was founded as Dynasty II.

The next dynasty, the second, has large gaps in information that has remained virtually anonymous for millennia and archaeologists still have not found anything more than a few traces. Dynasty II had five kings but Manetho states that there were nine.

It is interesting to note that much of the information left Manetho written is very vague, in many cases the dates of reigns are quite exaggerated by the prevailing question about whether there was a mistranslation of his work by other authors; hard over the age could have such imprecision by a scribe, in this case Manetho.

From the first kings of Dynasty II, which is little known but we know of its existence by some objects that contain their names. For example, in regard to the first king of this dynasty, Hotepsejemuy, he found his serekh on the shoulder of a statue of a man named Hotep-Dif who possibly was a priest during his reign and his two successors, and Raneb Nineteen which incidentally, are also inscribed on the shoulder of the statue today at the Cairo Museum.

Possibly Raneb Hotepsejemuy and were buried in Saqqara since in this place have been found some stamps with their names. Regarding the successor Raneb, Nineteen, known episodes of his reign by the Palermo Stone which tells for example the military campaign and the looting of Shem Re during the thirteenth year of reign.

From the reign of Seth-Peribsen, the story becomes more interesting for having been found more evidence of certain facts. Seth-Peribsen as we know it today, was the successor of Nineteen. Her name during his first years in office was Sejemib. Good thing about his reign is that the name change was due to a conflict between the kingdoms of the northern and southern Egypt. As has been demonstrated previously that happened every so often and clashes between the two territories ended when the monarch could unify, through war or marriage.

The new rivalry between the Upper and Lower Egypt was of political and religious, and the latter element must be the fact that Sejemib change his name to Seth-Peribsen. This conflict from the religious point of view suggests that the faithful of the god Seth were imposed on the followers of the god Horus. This is deemed so because of the change of name of the king, the serekh Sejemib the name is at the top that identifies a falcon with Horus. The serekh with the name of Seth-Peribsen falcon instead replaced by Seth animal representation.

However, his successor, Khasekhemuwy, wanted to avoid the conflict following a resubmission, or perhaps had not been resolved completely after the death of Seth-Peribsen therefore chose to include in their representations both animals serekh Horus and Seth. However, there was actually a struggle between two kingdoms. This fact is evidenced in a vessel whose inscription suggests that the inhabitants of Lower Egypt to Upper Egypt came to attack his enemies. Unfortunately for the wrestlers of Lower Egypt, the war was won by Khasekhemuwy king in Upper Egypt as shown by two statues of the pharaoh found in Heliopolis, whose bases are seen to the fallen of northern Egypt.