The few glimpses to be obtained of the early history of the first Theban dynasty give the impression of an energetic and intelligent race.  The kings of the Eleventh dynasty were careful not to wander too far from the valley of the Nile, concentrating their efforts not on conquest of fresh territory, but on the remedy of the evils from which the country had suffered for hundreds of years.  The final overthrow of the Heracleopolitan dynasty, and the union of the two kingdoms under the rule of the Theban house, are supposed to have been the work of that Monthotpu, whose name the Egyptians of Rameside times inscribed in the royal lists as that of the founder and most illustrious representative of the Eleventh dynasty.

The leader of the Twelfth dynasty, Amenemhait I., was of another stamp, showing himself to be a Pharaoh conscious of his own divinity and determined to assert it.  He inspected the whole land, restored what he found in ruins, crushed crime, settled the bounds of towns, and established for each its frontiers.  Recognising that Thebes lay too far south to be a suitable place of residence for the lord of all Egypt, Amenemhait proceeded to establish himself in the heart of the country in imitation of the glorious Pharaohs from whom he claimed descent.  He took up his abode a little to the south of Dashur, in the palace of Titoui.  Having restored peace to his country, the king in the twentieth year of his reign, when he was growing old, raised his son Usirtasen, then very young, to the co-regency with himself.

When, ten years later, the old king died, his son was engaged in a war against the Libyans.  He reigned alone for thirty-two years.  The Twelfth dynasty lasted 213 years; and its history can be ascertained with greater certainty and completeness than that of any other dynasty which ruled Egypt, although we are far from having any adequate idea of its great achievements, for unfortunately the biographies of its eight sovereigns and the details of their interminable wars are very imperfectly known.

Uncertainty again shrouds the history of the country after the reign of Sovkhoptu I. The Twentieth dynasty contained, so it is said, sixty kings, who reigned for a period of over 453 years.  The Nofirhoptus and Sovkhoptus continued to all appearances both at home and abroad the work so ably begun by the Amenemhaits and the Usirtasens.

During the Thirteenth dynasty art and everything else in Egypt were fairly prosperous, but wealth exercised an injurious effect on artistic taste.  During this dynasty we hear nothing of the inhabitants of the Sinaitic Peninsula to the east, or of the Libyans to the west; it was in the south, in Ethiopia, that the Pharaohs expended all their superfluous energy.  The middle basin of the Nile as far as Gebel-Barkal was soon incorporated with Egypt, and the population became quickly assimilated.  Sovkhoptu III., who erected colossal statues of himself at Tanis, Bubastis