October 2
The flight from Toronto to Cairo
Our direct flight is from Toronto to Cairo, flight MSR996, arriving at 6:30 AM on October 3rd. In a brilliant move, the normal availability of an Airbnb is typically mid-afternoon. We had five exhausted travellers who had travelled and were starting to recover from a lost seven hours due to timezone changes, and nowhere to go.
To do a fix-around, we booked the Airbnb from the night before, October 2nd. This way, we would have a place to go once we landed. We plan to stay for three weeks, which will give us plenty of time to explore. We will never be able to see everything in Egypt in three weeks. Our approach is that we can’t do any one part justice; we intend to do the whole country an injustice.
We have highlights and essential things that we want to see. Each day, we will have a main event, R&R and an evening event. We have been planning each day for the past six months.
Ancient Egypt Tutorial
This is an excellent opportunity to conduct a basic tutorial on Ancient Egypt. There are three types of labels to mark the six-thousand-year history of the ancient Egyptian era:
Our calendar, Periods, and dynasties. We can debate any statements made, but remember that this is a 6,000-year range. There are significant differences, but in general, a consensus opinion is based on written records, compiled chronologies, inscriptions on artifacts, and cross-referencing various dating methods, as outlined below. We have a perfect picture of the timelines.
In the third century BC, the Egyptian priest Manetho created a comprehensive list of 30 dynasties. Fragments of his work survived, but others who used his work created summaries that allowed them to piece together the list.
Mantheo’s work was based on King’s lists.
Monuments and temples had inscriptions carved, including lists of battles, achievements and decrees.
Papyrus Documents have also survived, including documentation.
Ancient Historians’ records were often inaccurate
Gregorian Calendar
The most commonly understood ones are BC and AD - ancient Egyptian historical records date from 5500 BC to 500 AD.
I will describe the other labels using the Gregorian calendar as the measuring stick. Additionally, considering a span of 6,000 years, with timeframes broken down into 9 or 10 periods or 33 dynasties, it is understandable that we can’t be year-specific.
Periods
The Predynastic Period ~ 5500 BC to 3000 BC
The Archaic Period ~3000 BC to 2686 BC
The Old Kingdom ~ 2686 BC to 2181 BC. This period is also known as the “Age of the Pyramids.” The era was famous for its centralized authority, economic prosperity, and grand architecture.
First Intermediate Period, spanning from ~ 2181 BC to 2040 BC
Middle Kingdom ~ 2061 BC to 1649 BC.
Second Intermediate Period ~ 1705 BC to 1549 BC.
New Kingdom ~ 1550 BC to 1077 BC
Third Intermediate Period ~ 1069 BC to 656 BC
Late Period ~ 664 BC to 332 BC
Greco-Roman Period ~ 332 BC to 30 BC
Dynasties
The third measure is by dynasties - there were 31 dynasties. Each dynasty is defined as a succession from the same family that governed continuously.
The first two were in the Archaic Period,
Third to Sixth, in the Old Kingdom,
Seventh to Tenth in the First Intermediate Period,
Eleventh to Thirteenth, in the Middle Kingdom,
Fourteenth to the Seventeenth, in the Second Intermediate Kingdom
Eighteenth to the Twentieth, in the New Kingdom
Twenty-First to Twenty-Fifth, in the Third Intermediate Period
Twenty-Sixth to Thirty-First, in the Late Period,
Argead Dynasty, Greco-Roman Period,
Ptolemaic Period, Greco-Roman Period.
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