History of Ancient Egyptian civilization Ancient Egyptian civilization
reached the peak of its power, wealth and influence in the New Kingdom period (1550 to 1070 B.C.), during the reigns of iconic pharaohs like Tutankhamun, Thutmose III and Ramses II, who may have been the biblical pharaoh of the Exodus story.
At its height, the Egyptian Empire controlled an expansive territory stretching from modern-day Egypt up through the northern Sinai peninsula and the ancient land of Canaan (which encompasses modern-day Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan and the southern portions of Syria and Lebanon).
But starting with the murder of Ramses III in 1155 B.C., the once-great Egyptian Empire was slowly brought to its knees by a centuries-long drought, economic crises and opportunistic foreign invaders.
Ramses III, the Last Great Egyptian Pharaoh
Ramses III ruled Egypt for 31 years and is widely considered the last of the “great” pharaohs. His reign coincided with one of the most turbulent and challenging periods in ancient Mediterranean history, known as the invasion of the “Sea Peoples.”
The precise identity of the Sea Peoples is still unknown, but most scholars believe they were an ethnically diverse band of refugees from the western Mediterranean displaced by drought and famine, who came east looking for new lands to conquer and inhabit. Marauding fleets of Sea Peoples may have attacked Egypt at least twice during the reigns of Merenptah and Ramses III.
In 1177 B.C., Ramses III and the Egyptian navy successfully repelled the second massive Sea Peoples invasion, and the pharaoh memorialized the victory on the walls of his temple and tomb complex in Medinet Habu.
But the celebration was short-lived, says Eric Cline, an archaeologist and historian of the Bronze Age, who wrote 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed. Ramses III was able to fight off the Sea Peoples, but not an assassination plot by a jealous secondary queen in his harem. According to CT scans of Ramses III’s mummy, the pharaoh was stabbed through the neck and murdered in 1155 B.C.
“That was the beginning of the end,” says Cline. “After Rameses III, that’s it. Egypt is never the same again.”
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