Lachish ( Hebrew : לכיש , romanized : Lāḵîš ; Koinē Greek : Λαχίς ; Latin : Lachis ) was an ancient Israelite city in the Shephelah ("lowlands of Judea") region of Canaan on the south bank of the Lakhish River mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible . The current tell by that name, known as Tel Lachish ( Hebrew : תל לכיש ) or Tell el-Duweir ( تل الدوير ), has been identified with Lachish. Today, it is an Israeli national park operated and maintained by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority . It lies near the present-day moshav of Lakhish , which was named in honor of the ancient city.
163-659: Maaibre Sheshi (also Sheshy ) was a ruler of areas of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period . The dynasty, chronological position, duration and extent of his reign are uncertain and subject to ongoing debate. The difficulty of identification is mirrored by problems in determining events from the end of the Middle Kingdom to the arrival of the Hyksos in Egypt. Nonetheless, Sheshi is, in terms of
326-622: A compound from " Aἰγαίου ὑπτίως " Aegaeou huptiōs , meaning " Below the Aegean ". " Miṣr " ( Arabic pronunciation: [misˤɾ] ; " مِصر ") is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern official name of Egypt, while " Maṣr " ( Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [mɑsˤɾ] ; مَصر ) is the local pronunciation in Egyptian Arabic . The current name of Egypt, Misr/Misir/Misru, stems from
489-435: A metropolitan area with a population of over 20 million. On 17 November 1997, 62 people, mostly tourists, were massacred near Luxor . In late February 2005, Mubarak announced a reform of the presidential election law, paving the way for multi-candidate polls for the first time since the 1952 movement . However, the new law placed restrictions on the candidates, and led to Mubarak's easy re-election victory. Voter turnout
652-738: A middle power worldwide. It is a developing country . Egypt is a founding member of the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement , the Arab League , the African Union , Organisation of Islamic Cooperation , World Youth Forum , and a member of BRICS . The English name "Egypt" is derived from the Ancient Greek " Aígyptos " (" Αἴγυπτος "), via Middle French "Egypte" and Latin " Aegyptus ". It
815-516: A semi-presidential republic led by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi since he was elected in 2014, has been described by a number of watchdogs as authoritarian and responsible for perpetuating the country's poor human rights record . Islam is the official religion and Arabic is official language. Egypt is considered to be a regional power in the Middle East, North Africa and the Muslim world , and
978-611: A cash-crop monoculture before the end of the century, concentrating land ownership and shifting production towards international markets. Muhammad Ali annexed Northern Sudan (1820–1824), Syria (1833), and parts of Arabia and Anatolia ; but in 1841 the European powers, fearful lest he topple the Ottoman Empire itself, forced him to return most of his conquests to the Ottomans. His military ambition required him to modernise
1141-404: A city wall built of massive stones. In Area P, a large mudbrick fortress was excavated. Finds from the fortress include 4 scarabs and a number of scarab sealings. These were of "both the local Canaanite MB IIC style and the Hyksos style". Radiocarbon dating produced a date in the mid-16th century BCE. By the end of Middle Bronze IIC the city was destroyed by fire. Some features originally ascribed to
1304-565: A clear majority of the seats for Egypt's Mostaqbal Watan ( Nation's Future ) Party, which strongly supports president El-Sisi. The party even increased its majority, partly because of new electoral rules. Tel Lachish Lachish was first mentioned in the Amarna letters . In the Book of Joshua , Lachish is cited as one of the cities conquered by the Israelites for joining the league against
1467-617: A context dated archeologically to the 2nd-century BC. The seals of Sheshi are now scattered in many different museums, including the Israel Museum , Petrie Museum , Ashmolean , British Museum , Louvre , Walters Art Museum , Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Egyptian Museum of Cairo . No historical attestation of Sheshi is known for certain. Sheshi is absent from the Turin canon , a list of kings written on papyrus during
1630-618: A deputy to Egypt to govern for him. In 828 another Egyptian revolt broke out, and in 831 the Copts joined with native Muslims against the government. Eventually the power loss of the Abbasids in Baghdad led for general upon general to take over rule of Egypt, yet being under Abbasid allegiance, the Tulunid dynasty (868–905) and Ikhshidid dynasty (935–969) were among the most successful to defy
1793-677: A dynastic marriage with a Kushite princess was to ally his kingdom with the Nubians. Ryholt's hypothesis concerning Nehesy may be vindicated by a number of scarabs giving Nehesy the titles of "king's son" and of "eldest king son", indicating that Nehesy's father was a king as well. In addition, both Nehesy and Ipqu bore the titles of "king's son of Ra", a conflation of the titles "son of Ra" and "king's son", which could indicate that they were appointed junior coregents by Sheshi. These conclusions are shared by Baker but rejected by Ben-Tor, who argues not only that Nehesy reigned before Sheshi but also that
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#17327764516631956-415: A fragmentary early alphabetic inscription. The remaining nine letters, nine of them in three lines, are perfectly discernable, but they cannot be convincingly combined into words and the words into a text. The undecipherable inscription still is of great palaeographic interest, given the scarcity of Late Bronze Age West Semitic inscriptions found in controlled excavations, as it adds to our knowledge about
2119-888: A further eight are from the wider Delta region. Four seals originate from Saqqara and a further five from the Middle Egyptian sites of Abusir el-Melek, Kom Medinet Ghurab, Kom el-Ahmar and Deir Rifa. To the south, in Upper Egypt, a total of twenty seals are known from Abydos , Hu , Thebes , Elephantine , Esna and Edfu , In Nubia, seals of Sheshi have been found in the Egyptian fortresses of Uronarti and Mirgissa and otherwise in Dakka , Kerma , Sayala , Aniba , Masmas, Faras , Ukma, Akasha and Sai . Finally, two seal impressions of Sheshi have been found in Carthage , in
2282-577: A generation" find. A fifth expedition, running from 2015 to 2016, was conducted as part of developing the site as a national park. A gate shrine of Level III, destroyed during the Assyrian assault and a toilet installation were found. It has been suggested that the toilet, in a gate shrine, was part of Hezekiah's campaign against idolatry. Two altars in the shrine also had their horns damaged in possible desecration. The Korean Lachish Excavation Team led by Hong Soon-hwa, reported that they had "uncovered
2445-536: A group of West Semitic rulers who coexisted with the 15th Dynasty, possibly as vassals or partly independently from it, and some of whom even bore the title of "Hyksos". The existence of lesser Hyksos kings in Egypt is currently debated. Ryholt has shown that a statement in Eusebius ' epitome of the Aegyptiaca indicating that the Hyksos had vassals contains a corruption of Manetho's original text. Thus, he rejects
2608-523: A king who left several attestations of his reign in the Delta region, and that there is only space for one predecessor for Nehesy on the canon, Ryholt concludes that the earlier document from which the canon was copied had a lacuna preceding Nehesy. Such lacunae are noted as wsf on the canon and could cover any number of kings. Thus, Ryholt sees no obstacle with having Sheshi succeed 'Ammu Ahotepre and immediately precede Nehesy. Ryholt dates Sheshi's reign to
2771-581: A long time (Level V). The reasons for this may have been rebellions and invasions by the Sea Peoples . Four mass graves were found at the site with over 1500 individuals interred, about half women and children. The tombs themselves dated to the Late Bronze Age but the burials contained few dateable elements so it is uncertain if the burials date to the LBA or later. Rebuilding of the city began in
2934-455: A military unit to be reckoned with. The resentment for the military way of life eventually faded from the men and a new ideology took hold, one of nationalism and pride. It was with the help of this newly reborn martial unit that Muhammad Ali imposed his rule over Egypt. The policy that Mohammad Ali Pasha followed during his reign explains partly why the numeracy in Egypt compared to other North-African and Middle-Eastern countries increased only at
3097-603: A new city with fortifications. Under the Achaemenid Empire (Level I), a large altar known as the Solar Shrine on the east section of the mound was built. The shrine was abandoned after the area fell in the hands of Alexander the Great . The tell has been unoccupied since then. Initially, Lachish was identified by Flinders Petrie with Tell el-Hesi , an identification supported when a relevant cuneiform tablet
3260-469: A prince Ipqu. Ryholt reached this conclusion on noting that scarabs of queen Tati and Princes Ipqu and Nehesy bear stylistic markers which are found on those of Sheshi and thus that they must have been contemporaries. In addition, "Tati" is attested as a feminine Nubian name in earlier execration texts , which would explain the peculiar name of Nehesy meaning "the Nubian". For Ryholt, Sheshi's motivation behind
3423-618: A remarkably small rate, as investment in further education only took place in the military and industrial sector. Muhammad Ali was succeeded briefly by his son Ibrahim (in September 1848), then by a grandson Abbas I (in November 1848), then by Said (in 1854), and Isma'il (in 1863) who encouraged science and agriculture and banned slavery in Egypt. Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty remained nominally an Ottoman province. It
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#17327764516633586-522: A report alleging that Egypt had become an international centre for torture, where other nations send suspects for interrogation, often as part of the War on Terror . Egypt's foreign ministry quickly issued a rebuttal to this report. Constitutional changes voted on 19 March 2007 prohibited parties from using religion as a basis for political activity, allowed the drafting of a new anti-terrorism law, authorised broad police powers of arrest and surveillance, and gave
3749-624: A ruler of the early 14th Dynasty , a line of kings of Canaanite descent ruling over of the Eastern Nile Delta immediately before the arrival of the Hyksos. Proponents of this theory, such as Kim Ryholt and Darrell Baker, credit Sheshi with 40 years of reign starting ca. 1745 BC. Ryholt proposed that Sheshi allied his kingdom with the Kushites in Nubia via a dynastic marriage with the Nubian princess Tati . Ryholt further posits that
3912-584: A separate king. Over 80 percent of the seals attributed to Maaibre Sheshi are of unknown provenance, but the remaining 20 percent have been found throughout Egypt, Nubia and Canaan , indicating widespread trade and diplomatic contacts during Sheshi's reign. Important finds include seals from Lachish , Gezer , Jericho , Tel Michal , Amman and Tell el-Ajjul in Canaan. In Lower Egypt, three seals have been unearthed in Tell el-Yahudiya and Tell el-Mashkuta and
4075-792: A sovereign union known as the United Arab Republic . The union was short-lived, ending in 1961 when Syria seceded. During most of its existence, the United Arab Republic was also in a loose confederation with North Yemen (or the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen), known as the United Arab States . In the early 1960s, Egypt became fully involved in the North Yemen Civil War . Despite several military moves and peace conferences,
4238-594: A wide range of 10th century BCE items, from houses with earthenware items and cooking stoves, to animal bones, olive seeds, spearheads, fortress walls and other objects" on July 5, 2017. Since 2017, the Austro-Israeli excavation is exploring the Middle and Late Bronze Age strata at the site. The project is conducted a joint project of Hebrew University and the Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology of
4401-600: Is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north , the Gaza Strip of Palestine and Israel to the northeast , the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south , and Libya to the west . The Gulf of Aqaba in the northeast separates Egypt from Jordan and Saudi Arabia . Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt , while Alexandria , the second-largest city, is an important industrial and tourist hub at
4564-579: Is described by the excavators as a name list with allocated provisions in Canaanite. As many as 12 purported Proto-Canaanite inscriptions had been discovered at Lachish by 2022. Six were discovered in the Starkey-Tufnell excavations, two during the renewed excavations by Ussishkin, and four in more recent excavations. At least three of the purported inscriptions are likely to have been merely figural pottery designs or pseudo-inscriptions Among
4727-404: Is known from other sources around the time of the Hyksos pharaoh Apophis c. 1570 BC. This suggests that the "king's son Nehesy" of the stela lived c. 1570 BC as well, over 100 years after King Nehesy's estimated lifetime. This could be confirmed by Ben-Tor's observation that the scarabs referring to the "king's son Nehesy" are different in style from those referring to king Nehesy. In this situation,
4890-419: Is reflected in early Greek Linear B tablets as "a-ku-pi-ti-yo". The adjective "aigýpti-"/"aigýptios" was borrowed into Coptic as " gyptios ", and from there into Arabic as " qubṭī ", back formed into " قبط " (" qubṭ "), whence English " Copt ". Prominent Ancient Greek historian and Geographer , Strabo , provided a folk etymology stating that " Αἴγυπτος " (Aigýptios) had originally evolved as
5053-439: Is supported by Egyptologist William Ayres Ward and the archaeologist Daphna Ben-Tor, who propose that Sheshi was a Hyksos king and belongs to the second half of the 15th Dynasty, reigning between Khyan and Apophis . Alternatively, Manfred Bietak has proposed that Sheshi was a vassal of the Hyksos, ruling over some part of Egypt or Canaan . The very existence of such vassals is debated. The final hypothesis says Sheshi could be
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5216-422: Is thanks to the work of David Ussishkin 's team that eight of these stamped jars were restored, thereby demonstrating lack of relevance between the jar volumes (which deviated as much as 5 gallons or 12 litres ), and also proving their relation to the reign of Biblical king Hezekiah . Ussishkin observed that "The renewed excavations confirmed Tufnell's suggestion that Level III had been destroyed in 701 BCE. All
5379-566: Is the Akkadian "mi-iṣ-ru" ("miṣru") related to miṣru/miṣirru/miṣaru , meaning "border" or "frontier". The Neo-Assyrian Empire used the derived term [REDACTED] , Mu-ṣur . There is evidence of rock carvings along the Nile terraces and in desert oases. In the 10th millennium BCE , a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishers was replaced by a grain -grinding culture. Climate changes or overgrazing around 8000 BCE began to desiccate
5542-530: Is the heart of Ra ". Based on the close stylistic similarities between both groups of scarabs as well as their otherwise unmatched numbers, the consensus among Egyptologists is that Maaibre was the prenomen of Sheshi. Consequently, Maaibre Sheshi is the best attested ruler of the Second Intermediate Period in terms of the number of artefacts attributed to him, with 396 seals and two seal impressions showing his nomen or prenomen. This figure
5705-454: Is three times higher than the 123 seals attributed to the next best attested king of the period, Yakbim Sekhaenre . In addition to these seals, Manfred Bietak has suggested that a scarab discovered in Avaris and inscribed with the name of a king " Shenshek " should probably be attributed to Sheshi. This conclusion is rejected by Kim Ryholt and Darrell Baker, who believe that Shenshek was
5868-634: The 1948 Arab–Israeli War . During the 1967 war, an Emergency Law was enacted, and remained in effect until 2012, with the exception of an 18-month break in 1980/81. Under this law, police powers were extended, constitutional rights suspended and censorship legalised. At the time of the fall of the Egyptian monarchy in the early 1950s, less than half a million Egyptians were considered upper class and rich, four million middle class and 17 million lower class and poor. Fewer than half of all primary-school-age children attended school, most of them being boys. Nasser's policies changed this. Land reform and distribution,
6031-597: The Ancient Semitic name for it. The term originally connoted " Civilization " or " Metropolis ". Classical Arabic Miṣr (Egyptian Arabic Maṣr ) is directly cognate with the Biblical Hebrew Miṣráyīm (מִצְרַיִם / מִצְרָיִם), meaning "the two straits", a reference to the predynastic separation of Upper and Lower Egypt . Also mentioned in several Semitic languages as Mesru , Misir and Masar . The oldest attestation of this name for Egypt
6194-611: The Anglo-Egyptian Treaty was concluded and British troops withdrew from Egypt, except for the Suez Canal. The treaty did not resolve the question of Sudan , which, under the terms of the existing Anglo-Egyptian Condominium Agreement of 1899, stated that Sudan should be jointly governed by Egypt and Britain, but with real power remaining in British hands. Britain used Egypt as a base for Allied operations throughout
6357-687: The Arab League , but it was supported by most Egyptians. Sadat was assassinated by an Islamic extremist in October 1981. Hosni Mubarak came to power after the assassination of Sadat in a referendum in which he was the only candidate. He became another leader to dominate the Egyptian history . Hosni Mubarak reaffirmed Egypt's relationship with Israel yet eased the tensions with Egypt's Arab neighbours. Domestically, Mubarak faced serious problems. Mass poverty and unemployment led rural families to stream into cities like Cairo where they ended up in crowded slums, barely managing to survive. On 25 February 1986 ,
6520-538: The Austrian Academy of Sciences and is co-directed by Felix Höflmayer and Katharina Streit. The project is funded by the Austrian Science Fund . In 2018 a pottery sherd, dated to the 15th century BCE, was found with alphabetic text. This fills a gap in the development history of alphabetic writing. In 2019 a hieratic ostracon was found, dated to the time of the Egyptian 18th Dynasty. It
6683-628: The Camp David Accords , which recognised Israel in exchange for its withdrawal from the occupied Sinai. After the Arab Spring , which led to the 2011 Egyptian revolution and overthrow of Hosni Mubarak , the country faced a protracted period of political unrest ; this included the election in 2012 of a brief, short-lived Muslim Brotherhood -aligned Islamist government spearheaded by Mohamed Morsi , and its subsequent overthrow after mass protests in 2013 . The current government,
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6846-646: The Early Iron Age , during the 10th and 9th centuries BCE, when it was part of the Kingdom of Judah . The unfortified settlement may have been destroyed c. 925 BCE by the pharaoh Shoshenq I , founder of the Twenty-second Dynasty of Egypt . In the first half of the 9th century BCE, under the Judahite kings Asa and Jehoshaphat , Lachish became an important city in the kingdom. It
7009-580: The Gibeonites ( Joshua 10:31–33 ). The territory was later assigned to the tribe of Judah according to Joshua 15 :39 and became part of the united Kingdom of Israel . Following the kingdom's partition, Lachish emerged as one of the most important cities in the Kingdom of Judah , second only to the capital, Jerusalem . Lachish is best known for its siege and conquest by the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 701 BCE, an event famously depicted on
7172-569: The Hyksos and established an empire that was most powerful following the military campaigns of Thutmose III . During the Amarna Period ( c. 1350 BCE ), several letters were written to the pharaoh and were discovered as part of the Amarna archive. It is mentioned in the Amarna letters as Lakisha/Lakiša (EA 287, 288, 328, 329, 335). During the 20th Dynasty of Egypt , the empire of
7335-613: The Lachish reliefs , which can be seen today in the British Museum . According to the Book of Jeremiah , Lachish and Azekah were the last two Judean cities to fall to the Neo-Babylonian Empire before the conquest of Jerusalem according to Jeremiah 34 :7. One of the Lachish letters , written in 597–587 BCE, warns of the impending Neo-Babylonian destruction. It reads: "Let my lord know that we are watching over
7498-474: The Late Bronze (1550–1200 BCE) and Iron Age (1200–587 BCE) levels. The Ussishkin expedition's comprehensive 5-volume report set a new standard in archaeological publication. According to Yosef Garfinkel , "The Starkey-Tufnell and Ussishkin expeditions set new standards in excavation and publication. They revolutionized our understanding of various aspects of Lachish, such as the later history of Judah and
7661-725: The Mediterranean coast . At approximately 110 million inhabitants, Egypt is the 14th-most populated country in the world , and the third-most populated in Africa. Egypt has one of the longest histories of any country, tracing its heritage along the Nile Delta back to the 6th–4th millennia BCE. Considered a cradle of civilisation , the Ancient Egypt saw some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. Egypt
7824-706: The Ottoman Turks , Egyptian Mamluks who had ruled Egypt for centuries, and Albanian mercenaries in the service of the Ottomans. After the French were expelled, power was seized in 1805 by Muhammad Ali Pasha , an Albanian military commander of the Ottoman army in Egypt. Muhammad Ali massacred the Mamluks and established a dynasty that was to rule Egypt until the revolution of 1952. The introduction in 1820 of long-staple cotton transformed its agriculture into
7987-399: The Pottery Neolithic period (5500–4500 BCE). Flint tools from that period have been found. Major development began in the Early Bronze Age (3300–3000 BCE). By the end of the Early Bronze, Lachish had become a large settlement. Most of the recovered pottery is of Khirbet Kerak Ware . The MBA period has not been extensively excavated at the site. During the Middle Bronze (2000–1650 BCE),
8150-401: The Ptolemaic line was Cleopatra VII , who committed suicide following the burial of her lover Mark Antony , after Octavian had captured Alexandria and her mercenary forces had fled. The Ptolemies faced rebellions of native Egyptians and were involved in foreign and civil wars that led to the decline of the kingdom and its annexation by Rome. Christianity was brought to Egypt by Saint Mark
8313-575: The Ptolemaic dynasty . The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a powerful Hellenistic state, extending from southern Syria in the east, to Cyrene to the west, and south to the frontier with Nubia. Alexandria became the capital city and a centre of Greek culture and trade. To gain recognition by the native Egyptian populace, they named themselves as the successors to the Pharaohs. The later Ptolemies took on Egyptian traditions, had themselves portrayed on public monuments in Egyptian style and dress, and participated in Egyptian religious life. The last ruler from
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#17327764516638476-418: The Ramesside period and which serves as the primary historical source for the Second Intermediate Period. This is because the section of the papyrus covering the 13th to 17th Dynasties is heavily damaged and the problem of Sheshi's chronological position cannot be resolved from the document. It is unclear whether Sheshi is mentioned in the Aegyptiaca , a history of Egypt written in the 3rd century BC during
8639-437: The Third Dynasty pyramid of Djoser and the Fourth Dynasty Giza pyramids . The First Intermediate Period ushered in a time of political upheaval for about 150 years. Stronger Nile floods and stabilisation of government, however, brought back renewed prosperity for the country in the Middle Kingdom c. 2040 BCE, reaching a peak during the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III . A second period of disunity heralded
8802-421: The Wafd Party led the Egyptian nationalist movement to a majority at the local Legislative Assembly. When the British exiled Zaghlul and his associates to Malta on 8 March 1919, the country arose in its first modern revolution . The revolt led the UK government to issue a unilateral declaration of Egypt's independence on 22 February 1922. Following independence from the United Kingdom, Sultan Fuad I assumed
8965-548: The elections of June 2014 El-Sisi won with a percentage of 96.1%. On 8 June 2014, Abdel Fatah el-Sisi was officially sworn in as Egypt's new president. Under President el-Sisi, Egypt has implemented a rigorous policy of controlling the border to the Gaza Strip, including the dismantling of tunnels between the Gaza strip and Sinai. In April 2018, El-Sisi was re-elected by a landslide in election with no real opposition. In April 2019, Egypt's parliament extended presidential terms from four to six years. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
9128-402: The "king's son Nehesy" would be a Hyksos prince different from the better-known king Nehesy. Egypt Egypt ( Arabic : مصر Miṣr [mesˁr] , Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [mɑsˤr] ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt , is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and the Sinai Peninsula in the southwest corner of Asia . It
9291-408: The 1990s an Islamist group, Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya , engaged in an extended campaign of violence, from the murders and attempted murders of prominent writers and intellectuals, to the repeated targeting of tourists and foreigners. Serious damage was done to the largest sector of Egypt's economy—tourism —and in turn to the government, but it also devastated the livelihoods of many of the people on whom
9454-402: The Abbasid Caliph. Muslim rulers remained in control of Egypt for the next six centuries, with Cairo as the seat of the Fatimid Caliphate . With the end of the Ayyubid dynasty , the Mamluks , a Turco - Circassian military caste, took control about 1250. By the late 13th century, Egypt linked the Red Sea, India, Malaya, and East Indies. The mid-14th-century Black Death killed about 40% of
9617-468: The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium Agreement was signed: the Agreement stated that Sudan would be jointly governed by the Khedivate of Egypt and the United Kingdom. However, actual control of Sudan was in British hands only. In 1906, the Denshawai incident prompted many neutral Egyptians to join the nationalist movement. In 1914 the Ottoman Empire entered World War I in alliance with the Central Empires; Khedive Abbas II (who had grown increasingly hostile to
9780-421: The Assyrians built a stone and dirt ramp up to the level of the Lachish city wall, thereby allowing the soldiers to charge up the ramp and storm the city. Excavations revealed approximately 1500 skulls in one of the caves near the site, and hundreds of arrowheads on the ramp and at the top of the city wall, indicating the ferocity of the battle. The city occupied an area of 8 hectares (20 acres) . Lachish fell to
9943-425: The Badarian by about seven hundred years. Contemporaneous Lower Egyptian communities coexisted with their southern counterparts for more than two thousand years, remaining culturally distinct, but maintaining frequent contact through trade. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared during the predynastic period on Naqada III pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BCE. A unified kingdom
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#173277645166310106-435: The British in preceding years) decided to support the motherland in war. Following such decision, the British forcibly removed him from power and replaced him with his brother Hussein Kamel . Hussein Kamel declared Egypt's independence from the Ottoman Empire, assuming the title of Sultan of Egypt . Shortly following independence, Egypt was declared a protectorate of the United Kingdom. After World War I , Saad Zaghlul and
10269-415: The Council of Regency, led by Prince Muhammad Abdel Moneim was formed. The council, however, held only nominal authority and the real power was actually in the hands of the Revolutionary Command Council , led by Naguib and Nasser. Popular expectations for immediate reforms led to the workers' riots in Kafr Dawar on 12 August 1952. Following a brief experiment with civilian rule, the Free Officers abrogated
10432-405: The Egyptian Auxiliary Police were observed helping the guerrillas. In response, on 25 January, General George Erskine sent out British tanks and infantry to surround the auxiliary police station in Ismailia. The police commander called the Interior Minister, Fouad Serageddin , Nahas's right-hand man, to ask if he should surrender or fight. Serageddin ordered the police to fight "to the last man and
10595-550: The Eighteenth Dynasty, marking the rise of Egypt as an international power that expanded during its greatest extension to an empire as far south as Tombos in Nubia , and included parts of the Levant in the east. This period is noted for some of the most well known Pharaohs , including Hatshepsut , Thutmose III , Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti , Tutankhamun and Ramesses II . The first historically attested expression of monotheism came during this period as Atenism . Frequent contacts with other nations brought new ideas to
10758-418: The Evangelist in the 1st century. Diocletian 's reign (284–305 CE) marked the transition from the Roman to the Byzantine era in Egypt, when a great number of Egyptian Christians were persecuted. The New Testament had by then been translated into Egyptian. After the Council of Chalcedon in CE 451, a distinct Egyptian Coptic Church was firmly established. The Byzantines were able to regain control of
10921-413: The Fosse Temple III at Level VII, which dates it back to the 13th century BCE. The Lachish bowl was discovered in Tomb 527 at Lachish Level VII, dated to the 13th century BCE. The Lachish bowl fragment was discovered in a Level VII context and dated to the 12th century BCE. The "Lachish jar sherd", found in 2014 in a stratigraphic context (Level VI) which allows dating it to around 1130 BCE, contains
11084-407: The Hyksos invasion". More recently, Ryholt obtained a similar result using his own seriation and places Sheshi before Yaqub-Har and the great Hyksos rulers Khyan and Apophis and after Yakbim Sekhaenre, Ya'ammu Nubwoserre , Qareh Khawoserre and 'Ammu Ahotepre . Rolf Krauss independently reached the same conclusion. Given that the earliest 14th Dynasty ruler mentioned on the Turin canon is Nehesy ,
11247-426: The Iron Age by the early excavators have now been redated to the MBA and LBA. In the Late Bronze Age (1550–1200 BCE), Lachish was re-established and developed slowly, eventually becoming one of the large and prosperous cities of the Southern Levant. It is first attested as rkjšꜣ ( Lakisha ) in a New Kingdom text, the Papyrus Hermitage 1116A . Lakhish came under the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt , which expelled
11410-401: The Iron Age history of the site on behalf of the Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Institute of Archaeology, Southern Adventist University . Other consortium institutions include Virginia Commonwealth University , Oakland University and Korea Biblical Geography Research Institute. The excavations were concentrated in the northeast corner of the site near
11573-452: The Italian army invaded Egypt. The Egyptian army did no fighting. In June 1940 the King dismissed Prime Minister Aly Maher, who got on poorly with the British. A new coalition Government was formed with the Independent Hassan Pasha Sabri as prime minister. Following a ministerial crisis in February 1942, the ambassador Sir Miles Lampson , pressed Farouk to have a Wafd or Wafd-coalition government replace Hussein Sirri Pasha 's government. On
11736-498: The Muslim Brotherhood leaders and activists have either been sentenced to death or life imprisonment in a series of mass trials. On 18 January 2014, the interim government instituted a new constitution following a referendum approved by an overwhelming majority of voters (98.1%). 38.6% of registered voters participated in the referendum a higher number than the 33% who voted in a referendum during Morsi's tenure. In
11899-572: The Muslim Brotherhood. Liberal and secular groups walked out of the constituent assembly because they believed that it would impose strict Islamic practices, while Muslim Brotherhood backers threw their support behind Morsi. On 22 November 2012, President Morsi issued a temporary declaration immunising his decrees from challenge and seeking to protect the work of the constituent assembly. The move led to massive protests and violent action throughout Egypt. On 5 December 2012, tens of thousands of supporters and opponents of President Morsi clashed, in what
12062-509: The Nehesy referred to as "king's son" was a later Hyksos prince. In 2005 a stele of Nehesy was discovered in the fortress city of Tjaru , the starting point of the Way of Horus , the major road leading out of Egypt into Canaan. The stele shows a "king's son Nehesy" offering oil to the god Banebdjedet and also bears an inscription mentioning the "king's sister Tany ". A woman with this name and title
12225-516: The Neo-Assyrian Empire, it was besieged and captured by Sennacherib despite the defenders' determined resistance. Some scholars believe that the fall of Lachish occurred during a second campaign in the area by Sennacherib ca. 688 BCE. The site now contains the only remains of an Assyrian siege ramp discovered. Sennacherib later devoted a whole room in his "Palace without a rival", the southwest palace in Nineveh , for artistic representations of
12388-579: The Neo-Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar II in his campaign against Judah in 586 BCE. The city was finally destroyed in 587 BCE. Residents were exiled as part of the Babylonian captivity. During Babylonian occupation, a large residence was built on the platform that had once supported the Israelite palace. At the end of the captivity, some exiled Jews returned to Lachish and built
12551-597: The New Kingdom of Egypt started to lose its control in the Southern Levant . A bronze object bearing the cartouche of Ramesses III may be associated with the city gate. While Lachish had prospered under Egyptian hegemony, fire destroyed it around 1150 BCE. It was rebuilt by Canaanites, who built two temples. However, this settlement was soon destroyed by another fire around 1130 BCE (cf. nearby fortified Eglon, Canaan ). The site then remained sparsely occupied for
12714-555: The New Kingdom. The country was later invaded and conquered by Libyans , Nubians and Assyrians , but native Egyptians eventually drove them out and regained control of their country. In 525 BCE, the Achaemenid Empire , led by Cambyses II , began their conquest of Egypt, eventually capturing the pharaoh Psamtik III at the battle of Pelusium . Cambyses II then assumed the formal title of pharaoh , but ruled Egypt from his home of Susa in Persia (modern Iran), leaving Egypt under
12877-575: The Nubians against the native Egyptian 13th Dynasty as soon as they arrived in the Nile Delta, an event which Grimal places at c. 1720 BC. Grimal envisions Sheshi's kingdom as comprising the entire Nile Delta and the Nile valley north of Gebelein . According to Manetho as reported by Josephus in Against Apion , Salitis reigned from Memphis , and fortified the existing town of Avaris , which
13040-432: The Second Intermediate Period to date Sheshi to the second half of the 15th Dynasty, between the great Hyksos pharaohs Khyan and Apophis . Jürgen von Beckerath is less assertive about Sheshi's identity and assigns him to his combined 15th / 16th Dynasty, where he regroups Hyksos rulers whose chronological position is uncertain together with kings whom he sees as vassals of the Hyksos. Von Beckerath's analysis relies on
13203-620: The Security Police started rioting, protesting against reports that their term of duty was to be extended from 3 to 4 years. Hotels, nightclubs, restaurants and casinos were attacked in Cairo and there were riots in other cities. A day time curfew was imposed. It took the army 3 days to restore order. 107 people were killed. In the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, terrorist attacks in Egypt became numerous and severe, and began to target Christian Copts , foreign tourists and government officials. In
13366-587: The Shura Council and installed a temporary interim government. On 4 July 2013, 68-year-old Chief Justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt Adly Mansour was sworn in as acting president over the new government following the removal of Morsi. The new Egyptian authorities cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters, jailing thousands and forcefully dispersing pro-Morsi and pro-Brotherhood protests. Many of
13529-611: The Sinai Peninsula border with Israel, and on 23 May he closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. On 26 May Nasser declared, "The battle will be a general one and our basic objective will be to destroy Israel". This prompted the beginning of the Third Arab Israeli War (Six-Day War) in which Israel attacked Egypt, and occupied Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip , which Egypt had occupied since
13692-1045: The Soviet advisors in 1972. Egypt was renamed as Arab Republic of Egypt in 1971. Sadat launched the Infitah economic reform policy, while clamping down on religious and secular opposition. In 1973, Egypt, along with Syria, launched the Fourth Arab-Israeli War (Yom Kippur War), a surprise attack to regain part of the Sinai territory Israel had captured 6 years earlier. In 1975, Sadat shifted Nasser's economic policies and sought to use his popularity to reduce government regulations and encourage foreign investment through his programme of Infitah. Through this policy, incentives such as reduced taxes and import tariffs attracted some investors, but investments were mainly directed at low risk and profitable ventures like tourism and construction, abandoning Egypt's infant industries. Because of
13855-602: The Suez Canal on 26 July 1956; his hostile approach towards Israel and economic nationalism prompted the beginning of the Second Arab-Israeli War (Suez Crisis), in which Israel (with support from France and the United Kingdom) occupied the Sinai peninsula and the Canal. The war came to an end because of US and USSR diplomatic intervention and the status quo was restored. In 1958, Egypt and Syria formed
14018-417: The Suez Canal. As the British refused to leave their base around the Suez Canal, the Egyptian government cut off the water and refused to allow food into the Suez Canal base, announced a boycott of British goods, forbade Egyptian workers from entering the base and sponsored guerrilla attacks. On 24 January 1952, Egyptian guerrillas staged a fierce attack on the British forces around the Suez Canal, during which
14181-640: The Wafd for the Black Saturday riot, and dismissed Nahas as prime minister the next day. He was replaced by Aly Maher Pasha . On 22–23 July 1952, the Free Officers Movement , led by Muhammad Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser , launched a coup d'état ( Egyptian Revolution of 1952 ) against the king. Farouk I abdicated the throne to his son Fouad II , who was, at the time, a seven-month-old baby. The Royal Family left Egypt some days later and
14344-643: The War. Anti-monarchy sentiments further increased following the disastrous performance of the Kingdom in the First Arab-Israeli War . The 1950 election saw a landslide victory of the nationalist Wafd Party and the King was forced to appoint Mostafa El-Nahas as new prime minister. In 1951 Egypt unilaterally withdrew from the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 and ordered all remaining British troops to leave
14507-542: The arrival of the first foreign ruling dynasty in Egypt, that of the Semitic Hyksos . The Hyksos invaders took over much of Lower Egypt around 1650 BCE and founded a new capital at Avaris . They were driven out by an Upper Egyptian force led by Ahmose I , who founded the Eighteenth Dynasty and relocated the capital from Memphis to Thebes . The New Kingdom c. 1550–1070 BCE began with
14670-524: The battle of Heliopolis. Amr next proceeded in the direction of Alexandria, which surrendered to him by a treaty signed on 8 November 641. Alexandria was regained for the Byzantine Empire in 645 but was retaken by Amr in 646. In 654 an invasion fleet sent by Constans II was repulsed. The Arabs founded the capital of Egypt called Fustat , which was later burned down during the Crusades. Cairo
14833-540: The beacon of Lachish, according to the signals which my lord gave, for Azekah is not seen." This pottery inscription can be seen at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The siege ramp at Lachish, designed for deploying battering rams against the city during the Neo-Assyrian siege, is the oldest known in the world and the sole example found in the ancient Near East . Occupation at the site of Lachish began during
14996-530: The bulk of the swelling middle class in Egypt under Nasser. During the 1960s, the Egyptian economy went from sluggish to the verge of collapse, the society became less free, and Nasser's appeal waned considerably. In 1970, President Nasser died and was succeeded by Anwar Sadat . During his period , Sadat switched Egypt's Cold War allegiance from the Soviet Union to the United States, expelling
15159-414: The capital of Egypt since the reign of Amenemhat I (c. 1980 BC), in favor of Thebes, as he lost control of the Delta region to the 14th Dynasty. If Sheshi is to be identified with Salitis, the founder of the 15th Dynasty, according to Manetho, then he would have lived around 1650 BC, the date agreed upon by most Egyptologists, including Ryholt, for the arrival of the Hyksos in Egypt. If Sheshi lived during
15322-688: The commander of the garrison at Lachish shortly before it fell to the Babylonians in either 589 or 586 B.C." Starkey was murdered in 1938 while travelling to Jerusalem to open the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum . Tufnell, Harding and Inge remained for the 1938–9 season. Tufnell returned to London and over the next two decades, worked at the Institute of Archaeology in London, "sorting, collating, studying and presenting
15485-534: The control of a satrapy . The entire Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt , from 525 to 402 BCE, save for Petubastis III , was an entirely Achaemenid-ruled period, with the Achaemenid emperors all being granted the title of pharaoh. A few temporarily successful revolts against the Achaemenids marked the fifth century BCE, but Egypt was never able to permanently overthrow the Achaemenids. The Thirtieth Dynasty
15648-691: The country after a brief Sasanid Persian invasion early in the 7th century amidst the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 during which they established a new short-lived province for ten years known as Sasanian Egypt , until 639–42, when Egypt was invaded and conquered by the Islamic caliphate by the Muslim Arabs. When they defeated the Byzantine armies in Egypt, the Arabs brought Islam to
15811-568: The country's population. Egypt was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1517, after which it became a province of the Ottoman Empire . The defensive militarisation damaged its civil society and economic institutions. The weakening of the economic system combined with the effects of plague left Egypt vulnerable to foreign invasion. Portuguese traders took over their trade. Between 1687 and 1731, Egypt experienced six famines. The 1784 famine cost it roughly one-sixth of its population. Egypt
15974-399: The country. Some time during this period, Egyptians began to blend in their new faith with indigenous beliefs and practices, leading to various Sufi orders that have flourished to this day. These earlier rites had survived the period of Coptic Christianity . In 639 an army was sent in Egypt by the second caliph , Umar , under the command of Amr ibn al-As . They defeated a Roman army at
16137-412: The country: he built industries, a system of canals for irrigation and transport, and reformed the civil service. He constructed a military state with around four percent of the populace serving the army to raise Egypt to a powerful positioning in the Ottoman Empire in a way showing various similarities to the Soviet strategies (without communism) conducted in the 20th century. Muhammad Ali Pasha evolved
16300-428: The dramatic growth in university education, and government support to national industries greatly improved social mobility and flattened the social curve. From academic year 1953–54 through 1965–66, overall public school enrolments more than doubled. Millions of previously poor Egyptians, through education and jobs in the public sector, joined the middle class. Doctors, engineers, teachers, lawyers, journalists, constituted
16463-464: The dynasty to which Sheshi belonged. The first hypothesis is supported by Egyptologists such as Nicolas Grimal , William C. Hayes , and Donald B. Redford , who believe that he should be identified with Salitis , founder of the 15th Dynasty according to historical sources and king of the Hyksos during their invasion of Egypt. Salitis is credited with 19 years of reign and would have lived sometime between c. 1720 BC and 1650 BC. The second hypothesis
16626-644: The election of Nasser in 1956. In October 1954, Egypt and the United Kingdom agreed to abolish the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium Agreement of 1899 and grant Sudan independence; the agreement came into force on 1 January 1956. Nasser assumed power as president in June 1956 and began dominating the history of modern Egypt . British forces completed their withdrawal from the occupied Suez Canal Zone on 13 June 1956. He nationalised
16789-458: The elimination of subsidies on basic foodstuffs, it led to the 1977 Egyptian Bread Riots . Sadat made a historic visit to Israel in 1977 , which led to the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. In return, Egypt recognised Israel as a legitimate sovereign state. Sadat's initiative sparked enormous controversy in the Arab world and led to Egypt's expulsion from
16952-659: The evolution of alphabetic script. The first archaeological expedition, the Starkey-Starkey-Tufnell (1932–1939) uncovered the Lachish letters, which were "written to the commander of the garrison at Lachish shortly before it fell to the Babylonians in either 589 or 586 B.C." The Hebrew letters were written on pieces of pottery, so-called ostraca . Eighteen letters were found in 1935 and three more in 1938, all written in Paleo-Hebrew script . They were from
17115-516: The fact that Sheshi did not bear the title of Heqa khasewet ; or that he belonged to another dynasty. Consequently, Ryholt suggests that Sheshi was actually a 14th Dynasty ruler, the 14th Dynasty being a line of kings of Canaanite descent possibly ruling over the Eastern Nile Delta immediately before the arrival of the Hyksos 15th Dynasty. Many Egyptologists accept the existence of the 14th Dynasty based on archaeological evidence and on
17278-494: The fact that about 50 kings are recorded in the Turin canon between the 13th Dynasty and the later Hyksos rulers. On the other hand, Redford proposed that these 50 kings constitute the genealogy of the Hyksos rulers and that the 14th Dynasty is chimerical. Based on a seriation of the scarab seals of the Second Intermediate Period available in 1900 AD, George Willoughby Fraser was able to date Sheshi's reign to "a short dynasty before
17441-517: The find in the international press. Subsequently the Israel Antiquities Authority issued a statement saying that the sherd was not authentic and had been created by an expert demonstrating inscription techniques to her students. She had come forward after the publicity surrounding the find, and explained she had used an original scrap of worthless pottery from the site and engraved the writing on it. She then discarded it at
17604-475: The findings in his 1975 publication, Investigations at Lachish: The sanctuary and the residency . The third expedition, 1973 and 1994, by a Tel Aviv University Institute of Archaeology and Israel Exploration Society team was led by David Ussishkin . Excavation and restoration work was conducted between 1973 and 1994 by a Tel Aviv University Institute of Archaeology and Israel Exploration Society team led by David Ussishkin . The excavation focused on
17767-469: The first President of the Republic, serving in that capacity for a little under one and a half years. Republic of Egypt (1953–1958) was declared. Naguib was forced to resign in 1954 by Gamal Abdel Nasser – a Pan-Arabist and the real architect of the 1952 movement – and was later put under house arrest . After Naguib's resignation, the position of president was vacant until
17930-539: The first time that an inscription bearing the name of Darius the Great had been found in the territory of Yehud Medinata , then a province of the Achaemenid Empire ruled by Darius. Levy reported it to Saar Ganor of the Israel Antiquities Authority —the director of excavations at Tel Lachish—who concluded after laboratory testing that the sherd was authentic, probably a receipt for goods received or shipped. This led to widespread coverage of
18093-513: The formation of the first nationalist groupings in 1879, with Ahmed ʻUrabi a prominent figure. After increasing tensions and nationalist revolts, the United Kingdom invaded Egypt in 1882, crushing the Egyptian army at the Battle of Tell El Kebir and militarily occupying the country. Following this, the Khedivate became a de facto British protectorate under nominal Ottoman sovereignty. In 1899
18256-633: The group depended for support. During Mubarak's reign, the political scene was dominated by the National Democratic Party , which was created by Sadat in 1978. It passed the 1993 Syndicates Law, 1995 Press Law, and 1999 Nongovernmental Associations Law which hampered freedoms of association and expression by imposing new regulations and draconian penalties on violations. As a result, by the late 1990s parliamentary politics had become virtually irrelevant and alternative avenues for political expression were curtailed as well. Cairo grew into
18419-474: The hypothesis that Manetho's 16th Dynasty comprised minor rulers of the Nile Delta region, called lesser Hyksos, who served the great Hyksos kings of the 15th Dynasty such as Khyan and Apophis. For Manfred Bietak, the large number of attestations of Sheshi suggests that he was an important Hyksos ruler, yet his inclusion in the 15th Dynasty may be doubtful given the total absence of monuments attributable to him. Thus, Bietak concludes that Sheshi should be placed in
18582-516: The hypothesis that the 16th Dynasty comprised vassals of the Hyksos and maintains instead that it was a native Egyptian dynasty independently reigning over the Theban region between the fall of the 13th Dynasty and the advent of the 17th Dynasty . These conclusions on the 16th Dynasty have been accepted by many scholars, including Ben-Tor, James Peter Allen , Susan Allen, Baker and Redford. Yet, for both Redford and Bietak "without doubt, there were, under
18745-559: The imposition of British and French controllers who sat in the Egyptian cabinet, and, "with the financial power of the bondholders behind them, were the real power in the Government." Other circumstances like epidemic diseases (cattle disease in the 1880s), floods and wars drove the economic downturn and increased Egypt's dependency on foreign debt even further. Local dissatisfaction with the Khedive and with European intrusion led to
18908-579: The king". More of these artifacts were found at this site (over 400; Ussishkin, 2004, pp. 2151–9) than any other place in Israel ( Jerusalem remains in second place with more than 300). Most of them were collected from the surface during Starkey 's excavations, but others were found in Level 1 ( Persian and Greek era), Level 2 (period preceding Babylonian conquest by Nebuchadnezzar ), and Level 3 (period preceding Assyrian conquest by Sennacherib ). It
19071-524: The last bullet". The resulting battle saw the police station levelled and 43 Egyptian policemen killed together with 3 British soldiers. The Ismailia incident outraged Egypt. The next day, 26 January 1952 was "Black Saturday" , as the anti-British riot was known, that saw much of downtown Cairo which the Khedive Ismail the Magnificent had rebuilt in the style of Paris, burned down. Farouk blamed
19234-588: The latest occupational level immediately before the Babylonian siege of 587 BCE . At the time, they formed the only known corpus of documents in classical Hebrew that had come down to us outside of the Hebrew Bible. Another major contribution to Biblical archaeology from excavations at Lachish are the LMLK seals , which were stamped on the handles of a particular form of ancient storage jar, meaning "of
19397-609: The location of the Middle Bronze Age gate and fortress. In the topsoil, unstratified, was found a dark blue diorite scarab of the Egyptian New Kingdom period. In 2014, during the Fourth Expedition to Lachish, led by archaeologist Saar Ganor , a small potsherd with letters from a 12th-century BCE alphabet, was found in the ruins of a Late Bronze Age temple. One researcher called it, a "once in
19560-497: The material found at Lachish". She completed her final publication Lachish IV in 1957. She had already become a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1951. The second was an Israeli expedition directed by Yohanan Aharoni that took place over two seasons in 1966 and 1968. The dig, which focused mainly on the "Solar Shrine", was worked on behalf of Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University . Aharoni published
19723-517: The mid-18th century BC. His main argument is the presence of seals of Sheshi and of two kings of the mid 13th Dynasty Sekhemrekhutawy Khabaw and Djedkheperew in the Egyptian fort of Uronarti in Nubia. The fort of Uronarti was abandoned at some point in the 13th Dynasty, an event which Ryholt dates to the reign of Djedkheperew given the lack of seals attributable to subsequent kings. Ryholt thus proposes that Sheshi reigned from c. 1745 BC until 1705 BC and
19886-455: The military from one that convened under the tradition of the corvée to a great modernised army. He introduced conscription of the male peasantry in 19th century Egypt, and took a novel approach to create his great army, strengthening it with numbers and in skill. Education and training of the new soldiers became mandatory; the new concepts were furthermore enforced by isolation. The men were held in barracks to avoid distraction of their growth as
20049-480: The monarchy and the 1923 constitution and declared Egypt a republic on 18 June 1953. Naguib was proclaimed as president, while Nasser was appointed as the new prime minister. Following the 1952 Revolution by the Free Officers Movement , the rule of Egypt passed to military hands and all political parties were banned. On 18 June 1953, the Egyptian Republic was declared, with General Muhammad Naguib as
20212-606: The news. The Egyptian military then assumed the power to govern. Mohamed Hussein Tantawi , chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces , became the de facto interim head of state . On 13 February 2011, the military dissolved the parliament and suspended the constitution. A constitutional referendum was held on 19 March 2011. On 28 November 2011, Egypt held its first parliamentary election since
20375-408: The night of 4 February 1942, British troops and tanks surrounded Abdeen Palace in Cairo and Lampson presented Farouk with an ultimatum . Farouk capitulated, and Nahhas formed a government shortly thereafter. Most British troops were withdrawn to the Suez Canal area in 1947 (although the British army maintained a military base in the area), but nationalist, anti-British feelings continued to grow after
20538-623: The number of artifacts attributed to him, the best-attested king of the period spanning the end of the Middle Kingdom and the Second Intermediate period; roughly from c. 1800 BC until 1550 BC. Hundreds of scaraboid seals bearing his name have been found throughout the Levant, Egypt, Nubia, and as far away as Carthage, where some were still in use 1,500 years after his death. Three competing hypotheses have been put forth for
20701-818: The pastoral lands of Egypt, forming the Sahara . Early tribal peoples migrated to the Nile River where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralised society. By about 6000 BCE, a Neolithic culture took root in the Nile Valley. During the Neolithic era, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt . The Badarian culture and the successor Naqada series are generally regarded as precursors to dynastic Egypt . The earliest known Lower Egyptian site, Merimda, predates
20864-406: The pre-Israelite Late Bronze Age Canaanite city." Excavations of Tel Lachish continued in 2012 under the auspices of Tel Aviv University's Institute of Archaeology, conducted by Nissim Golding-Meir. A Linear A inscription was also found at the site. In 2013, a fourth expedition to Lachish was begun under the direction of Yosef Garfinkel , Michael G. Hasel, and Martin G. Klingbeil to investigate
21027-625: The president power to dissolve parliament and end judicial election monitoring. In 2009, Dr. Ali El Deen Hilal Dessouki, Media Secretary of the National Democratic Party ( NDP ), described Egypt as a " pharaonic " political system, and democracy as a "long-term goal". Dessouki also stated that "the real center of power in Egypt is the military". On 25 January 2011, widespread protests began against Mubarak's government. On 11 February 2011, Mubarak resigned and fled Cairo. Jubilant celebrations broke out in Cairo's Tahrir Square at
21190-499: The previous regime had been in power. Turnout was high and there were no reports of major irregularities or violence. Mohamed Morsi , who was affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood , was elected president on 24 June 2012. On 30 June 2012, Mohamed Morsi was sworn in as Egypt's president. On 2 August 2012, Egypt's Prime Minister Hisham Qandil announced his 35-member cabinet comprising 28 newcomers, including four from
21353-592: The region, especially the battles in North Africa against Italy and Germany. Its highest priorities were control of the Eastern Mediterranean, and especially keeping the Suez Canal open for merchant ships and for military connections with India and Australia. When the war began in September 1939, Egypt declared martial law and broke off diplomatic relations with Germany. It broke diplomatic relations with Italy in 1940, but never declared war, even when
21516-418: The reign of Ptolemy II (283–246 BC) by the Egyptian priest Manetho . Indeed, the Aegyptiaca only reports Hellenized names for Egyptian pharaohs and the identification of Sheshi with any particular name remains controversial. Finally, Aharon Kempinski and Donald B. Redford have proposed that Sheshi is the historical figure who gave rise to the Biblical Sheshai , one of the Anakim living in Hebron at
21679-432: The royal reliefs of Sennacherib, the site excavations, and an ostracon found there. Israeli archaeologist and historical geographer, M. Avi-Yonah , thought to place Lachish at the ancient ruin of Qobebet Ibn ‘Awwad , near the former Palestinian Arab village by the same name, rather than at Tell ed Duweir . The place has been extensively excavated. The first expedition at Lachish, then Tell ed-Duweir, from 1932 to 1939,
21842-447: The royal storage jars, stamped and unstamped alike, date to the reign of Hezekiah, to shortly before the Assyrian conquest.' In 2022, Eylon Levy , an adviser to the Israeli president Isaac Herzog , found an inscribed potsherd while visiting Tel Lachish. The sherd bore an Aramaic inscription that read "Year 24 of Darius," which if genuine would have indicated a date of 498 BCE. The find appeared significant, because it would have been
22005-540: The seals of Yakbim Sekhaenre, Ya'ammu Nubwoserre, Qareh Khawoserre and 'Ammu Ahotepre with those of Sheshi. Then, knowing that the first four of these kings reigned for at least 30 years, implies that they have left between 7.5 and 20 seals per year while on throne. Consequently, Sheshi's nearly 400 scarabs would correspond to 20 to 53 years, which Ryholt gives as about 40 years. Ryholt proposes that Sheshi had at least two consorts; Tati with whom he fathered his successor pharaoh Nehesy, and an unknown queen with whom he fathered
22168-498: The second half of the 15th Dynasty between the reigns of Khyan and Apophis as Ben-Tor and Ward favor then Sheshi would have reigned c. 1600 BC. The Egyptologists identifying Sheshi with Salitis follow Josephus, Sextus Julius Africanus and Eusebius who report that Manetho credited Salitis with 19 years of reign in his Aegyptiaca . Ryholt relies instead on a statistical method and estimates the duration of Sheshi's reign to have been between 20 and 53 years. The method consists in tallying
22331-458: The settlement developed. In the Middle Bronze I, the mound was resettled. Remains of a cult place and an assemblage of votive cultic vessels were found in Area D. In the Middle Bronze IIA, the development continued. In the Middle Bronze IIB-C, Lachish became a major city in the Southern Levant. An impressive glacis -like structure was constructed around the city, which shaped its present steep slopes and sharp corners. The proposed glacis fronted
22494-419: The siege on large alabaster slabs, most of which are now on display in the British Museum . They hold depictions of Assyrian siege ramps, battering rams, sappers, and other siege machines and army units, along with Lachish's architecture and its final surrender. Combined with the archaeological finds, they give a good understanding of siege warfare of the period. Modern excavation of the site has revealed that
22657-419: The son of Sheshi and Tati was Nehesy, whose name means "The Nubian", whom he believes succeeded Sheshi to the throne as the pharaoh Nehesy Aasehre . The nomen of Sheshi is inscribed on over two hundred scarab seals , which constitute the sole attestations of his reign. The number of scarabs attributed to Sheshi is paralleled in number only by those bearing the prenomen Maaibre , meaning " The righteous one
22820-413: The time of the conquest of Canaan by the Hebrews according to Numbers 13:22 . David Rohl goes even further and explicitly equates Sheshi with Sheshai. Three competing hypotheses have been proposed regarding the dynasty to which Sheshi belonged. William C. Hayes , Nicolas Grimal , Redford, and Peter Clayton identify Sheshi with Salitis (also known as Saites). According to the Aegyptiaca , Salitis
22983-507: The title Heqa khasewet meaning "ruler of the foreign lands", a title which Sheshi did not bear. In addition, the later of these two kings, Khyan, only adopted an Egyptian prenomen during the second half of his reign—a practice that was followed by subsequent Hyksos kings. In contrast, if Sheshi is to be identified with Maaibre, then Sheshi bore a prenomen. This implies either that he was a Hyksos king reigning after Khyan, in contradiction with Khyan's known successors Apophis and Khamudi and
23146-429: The title of King of Egypt ; despite being nominally independent, the Kingdom was still under British military occupation and the UK still had great influence over the state. The new government drafted and implemented a constitution in 1923 based on a parliamentary system. The nationalist Wafd Party won a landslide victory in the 1923–1924 election and Saad Zaghloul was appointed as the new prime minister. In 1936,
23309-446: The umbrella of the fifteenth dynasty rulers, a series of vassals in southern and coastal Palestine, in Middle Egypt, and in Thebes. ... Such was the political system of the Hyksos, and typical of the Amorite kingdoms in Syria and the city-states in Palestine". Ryholt and Baker reject the identification of Sheshi as a 15th Dynasty ruler. Ryholt observes that early Hyksos kings, such as Sakir-Har and Khyan, are known to have adopted
23472-410: The war sank into a stalemate. In mid May 1967, the Soviet Union issued warnings to Nasser of an impending Israeli attack on Syria. Although the chief of staff Mohamed Fawzi verified them as "baseless", Nasser took three successive steps that made the war virtually inevitable: on 14 May he deployed his troops in Sinai near the border with Israel, on 19 May he expelled the UN peacekeepers stationed in
23635-436: The well-known legitimate inscriptions are the Lachish Ewer, Lachish Bowl, the Cypriot Bowl Fragment, and the Ivory Lice Comb. The few known inscriptions from the Late Bronze Age, the 13th and part of the 12th century BCE, show a certain " linearisation " when compared to the earlier, Proto-Sinaitic script , but the undergone process is not yet understood. In 2016, an inscribed elephant ivory lice comb dating to about 1700 BCE
23798-521: Was a contemporary of Khabaw and Djedkheperew. Ryholt's hypothesis regarding Sheshi comes with his dating the start of the 14th Dynasty around 1805 BC, over 90 years earlier than accepted by most Egyptologists. They propose instead that the 14th Dynasty emerged during the two decades of Merneferre Ay 's reign, which is dated to between 1700 BC and 1660 BC, depending on the scholar. Ay is the last 13th Dynasty pharaoh to be attested in Lower Egypt, and most scholars, therefore, contend that he abandoned Itjtawy ,
23961-421: Was also allowed to run for a third term in the next election in 2024. Under El-Sisi Egypt is said to have returned to authoritarianism. New constitutional reforms have been implemented, meaning strengthening the role of military and limiting the political opposition. The constitutional changes were accepted in a referendum in April 2019. In December 2020, final results of the parliamentary election confirmed
24124-425: Was always a difficult province for the Ottoman Sultans to control, due in part to the continuing power and influence of the Mamluks , the Egyptian military caste who had ruled the country for centuries. Egypt remained semi-autonomous under the Mamluks until it was invaded by the French forces of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798. After the French were defeated by the British, a three-way power struggle ensued between
24287-432: Was an early and important centre of Christianity , later adopting Islam from the seventh century onwards. Cairo became the capital of the Fatimid Caliphate in the tenth century, and of the provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in the 13th century. Egypt then became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1517, before its local ruler Muhammad Ali established modern Egypt as an autonomous Khedivate in 1867. The country
24450-421: Was described as the largest violent battle between Islamists and their foes since the country's revolution. Mohamed Morsi offered a "national dialogue" with opposition leaders but refused to cancel the December 2012 constitutional referendum . On 3 July 2013, after a wave of public discontent with autocratic excesses of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood government, the military removed Morsi from office, dissolved
24613-423: Was discovered, dating to the mid fifteenth century BCE. The inscription consists of nine letters. The authors of the editio princeps offer to read two words on the inscription, ʿbd meaning "servant, slave" and npt meaning "honey, nectar." The inscription is, however, too fragmentary to suggest much else but represents one of the earliest examples of alphabetic writing from the Levant. Inscribed ewer, found in
24776-431: Was found at Lachish during the Garfinkel excavations. The find is purported to bear the oldest sentence found written in the early Canaanite script . In the editio princeps , the authors suggest to read 15 letters, constituent of a wish to eradicate lice. They offer the following translation: "May this tusk root out the lice of the hai[r and the] beard." In 2018, an inked rim fragment of a Cypriot White Slip II milk bowl
24939-401: Was found there. The tablet mentions Zimredda a governor of who is known from one of the Amarna Letters (EA 333). The current identification of Tell ed-Duweir as Lachish was first suggested by William F. Albright in 1929 and subsequently accepted by many scholars. This suggestion is strong but circumstantial, based mostly on the geographic location of the site, the writing of Eusebius ,
25102-449: Was founded c. 3150 BCE by King Menes , leading to a series of dynasties that ruled Egypt for the next three millennia. Egyptian culture flourished during this long period and remained distinctively Egyptian in its religion , arts , language and customs. The first two ruling dynasties of a unified Egypt set the stage for the Old Kingdom period, c. 2700–2200 BCE, which constructed many pyramids , most notably
25265-443: Was granted the status of an autonomous vassal state or Khedivate (1867–1914) in 1867. The Suez Canal , built in partnership with the French, was completed in 1869. Its construction was financed by European banks. Large sums also went to patronage and corruption. New taxes caused popular discontent. In 1875 Isma'il avoided bankruptcy by selling all Egypt's shares in the canal to the British government. Within three years this led to
25428-401: Was heavily fortified with massive walls and ramparts. A royal palace was built on a platform in the center of the city. Lachish was the foremost among several towns and fortified strongholds guarding the valleys that lead up to Jerusalem and the interior of the country against enemies who usually approached from the coast. In 701 BCE, during the revolt of Hezekiah , king of Judah, against
25591-414: Was later built in the year 986 to grow to become the largest and richest city in the Arab caliphate , second only to Baghdad . The Abbasid period was marked by new taxations, and the Copts revolted again in the fourth year of Abbasid rule. At the beginning of the 9th century the practice of ruling Egypt through a governor was resumed under Abdallah ibn Tahir , who decided to reside at Baghdad , sending
25754-424: Was less than 25%. Election observers also alleged government interference in the election process. After the election, Mubarak imprisoned Ayman Nour , the runner-up. Human Rights Watch's 2006 report on Egypt detailed serious human rights violations under Mubarak's rule, including routine torture , arbitrary detentions and trials before military and state security courts. In 2007, Amnesty International released
25917-426: Was the Starkey-Tufnell British expedition which included James Leslie Starkey as expedition leader, Olga Tufnell , G.L. Harding and C. Inge. It was funded by Charles Marston and Henry Wellcome with the aim of finding the Biblical city of Lachish. They succeeded in finding Lachish, with a "wealth of well-stratified pottery", a "key part of the ceramic corpus of Palestine", and the Lachish letters , c. "written to
26080-419: Was the founder of the Hyksos 15th Dynasty . Alternatively, Bietak and Janine Bourriau have proposed that Salitis should be identified with Sakir-Har , a poorly known ruler of the Second Intermediate Period who, in contrast to Sheshi, is known to have borne the title of "Hyksos". If Sheshi is to be equated with Salitis, then the seals of Sheshi discovered in Nubia suggest that the Hyksos allied themselves with
26243-400: Was the last native ruling dynasty during the Pharaonic epoch. It fell to the Achaemenids again in 343 BCE after the last native Pharaoh, King Nectanebo II , was defeated in battle. This Thirty-first Dynasty of Egypt , however, did not last long, as the Achaemenids were toppled several decades later by Alexander the Great . The Macedonian Greek general of Alexander, Ptolemy I Soter , founded
26406-453: Was then occupied by the British Empire along with Sudan and gained independence in 1922 as a monarchy . Following the 1952 revolution , Egypt declared itself a republic . For a brief period between 1958 and 1961 Egypt merged with Syria to form the United Arab Republic . Egypt fought several armed conflicts with Israel in 1948 , 1956 , 1967 and 1973 , and occupied the Gaza Strip intermittently until 1967. In 1978, Egypt signed
26569-433: Was to become the Hyksos' seat of power. Grimal and Hayes further equate Sheshi with Sharek , a king whose sole attestation is found on a stone slab detailing the genealogy of Ankhefensekhmet , a priest who lived at the end of the 22nd Dynasty c. 750 BC, some 900 years after Sheshi's estimated lifetime. William Ayres Ward and the archaeologist Daphna Ben-Tor rely on seriations of the seals of Sheshi and other kings of
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