THE SECOND INTERMEDIATE PERIOD
1640 to 1539 BC

The 13th Dynasty continued to rule from Itjtaway but in name only, and their control over the rest of Egypt gradually slipped away. Some 40 pharaohs made up this dynasty, most of them short-term figureheads.

As the dynasty lost control, Egyptian military power grew weak. In Nubia, commanders and soldiers stationed there disregarded orders and asserted independence. Some 'went native' and settled down locally. On the eastern Asiatic border, the fortresses failed to maintain control or were abandoned altogether. Asiatic tribes had free entrance into a country they considered a land of wealth and abundance.

Most of these Asiatics settled and became traders, farmers or craftsmen, but at least one of them, Khendjer, became a 13th Dynasty puppet-pharaoh. By the end of the dynasty, the eastern Delta was populated mostly by Asiatics.

At some point in 2nd Intermediate Period, a group of the Asiatics, known as the Hyksos, established their own dynasties in Egypt. Little is known about their origins. It is commonly assumed that they invaded Egypt and overtook it by force. This is supported by the name the Egyptians gave to the Hyksos - "Rulers of Foreign Countries" - which implies that the Hyksos ruled outside Egypt before invading it. Certainly the weak 13th Dynasty offered little defense.

However, we have no evidence of military conflict between the Egyptians and Hyksos in late Middle Kingdom times. Another possibility is that the Asiatic settlers, who had been immigrating into Egypt for generations, became so numerous in the eastern Delta that they could gain political control without military effort. They simply declared their own dynasty. The fact that many of them used Egyptian names and apparently adopted Egyptian culture indicates that the Hyksos lived long in Egypt before they seized power.

The Hyksos ruled from Avaris in the north-east Delta. These "Shepherd-Kings" managed to extend their rule up the Nile almost to Thebes.

However the Hyksos came to power, they were largely accepted throughout Egypt as a ruling dynasty. The 15th Dynasty was a Hyksos dynasty, and so too the 16th Dynasty, of which we know little. (One or the other dynasties was possibly a usurper, as they seem to have reigned concurrently). The Hyksos tolerated other co-existing dynasties also. Some decrepit pharaohs of the 13th Dynasty still ruled the area around Itjtaway. The pharaohs of the 14th Dynasty apparently ruled the western part of the Delta. And in Thebes ruled a new Egyptian house: the 17th Dynasty.

The 2nd Intermediate Period and Hyksos rule was traditionally viewed as a time of misery and chaos (especially by later Egyptian dynasties). Certainly Egypt was divided, administration of the Nile Valley disrupted, and record keeping poor. But Egyptian civilization made several technological advances in this time. Before the Hyksos, Egypt indulged in isolation, remaining largely ignorant of the advances made in the rest of the Ancient Near East. But the Hyksos brought the Iron Age to the Nile. Many new tools, like the wheel; new power sources, like the domesticated horse; and especially new weapons, like the chariot and iron armor and weaponry all appeared in this period. The Hyksos invasions set the stage for the conquests and wealth of the New Kingdom.

Sometime around 1550 BC, the 17th Dynasty first started to oppose the dominion of the Hyksos kings. One story relates that the 17th Dynasty Theban pharaoh Tao II Sekenenre (1550s BC?) suffered insult from the 15th Dynasty Hyksos pharaoh Apophis (1550s BC?) and began the war. The mummy of Tao II Sekenenre shows that he died a violent death, which maybe supports this story.

In any case, the first recorded evidence of the war against the Hyksos comes from the reign of Tao II Sekenenre's son, pharaoh Kamose (1540s BC?). We have stele commemorating Kamose's struggle against the Hyksos and their vassals. Opposed by his advisors, Kamose continued (or maybe started) the war, and punished anyone who collaborated with the enemy. He almost succeeded in conquering the Hyksos capital Avaris, but his mummy (also) shows a violent death on the battlefield.

It was Kamose's younger brother, pharaoh Ahmose (1539-1514 BC), who finally overthrew the Hyksos and reunited the Two Lands. He started new dynasty, the 18th, and a new period of power, prosperity and splendor began: the New Kingdom.