ABSTRACT
TH E earlier part of this book has dealt chiefly withthe Old Kingdom, when the centre of administra-tion was in Lower, i.e. Northern Egypt. Most of the monuments and tombs of the Old Kingdom were discovered near the ancient capital of Memphis near Cairo, or in the pyramid fields of Giza, Sakkara, Dashur, Abusir, and other sites in Lower Egypt. Now we have to make a big jump in time and space. Six hundred miles up river is Luxor (page 129), for many years the most important archaeological site in Egypt, though now almost worked out. Here stood the imperial city of No-Arnun, later called Thebes, which for more than a thousand years ruled over the Egyptian Empire. It first figured in Egyptian history at the beginning of the Eleventh Dynasty (2100 B.C.) when, after a century of anarchy, a family of provincial nomarchs from Hermonthis gained power and established themselves on the site of the future capital. Besides its political and religious eminence, Thebes was also an important market. It controlled the routes to the gold mines in the Nubian mountains, and collected the produce of the Sudan, such as gums, ostrich feathers, gold dust and slaves.
