Mentuhotep II reunifies Egypt and founds the Middle Kingdom
- Date
- c. 2040 BCE
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- Egypt (Nile Valley)
- Era
- Ancient Civilizations
- Significance
After the political fragmentation of the First Intermediate Period, the Eleventh Dynasty ruler Mentuhotep II, based at Thebes in Upper Egypt, defeated the rival Herakleopolitan (Tenth Dynasty) kings of the north and reunited Egypt under a single crown around 2040 BCE, inaugurating the Middle Kingdom.
Taking advantage of a revolt in the Thinite nome around his fourteenth regnal year, he toppled the northern dynasty and consolidated control over the whole country by his thirty-ninth year. Reunification restored centralised royal authority, revived large-scale building and trade, and ushered in a period later regarded as a classical golden age of Egyptian art, literature, and administration. His mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahari, an innovative terraced complex, became architecturally influential and set a precedent later echoed by Hatshepsut. Mentuhotep II is conventionally credited as the founder of the Middle Kingdom and remembered as one of Egypt's great unifying monarchs.
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Empires active in c. 2040 BCE
- Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (Oxus Civilization)2250 BCE – 1700 BCE
- Indus Valley (Harappan) Civilization2600 BCE – 1900 BCE
- Elamite Kingdom2700 BCE – 539 BCE
- Xia Dynasty2070 BCE – 1600 BCE
Related politics & governance events
- Code of Ur-Nammu, the oldest surviving law codec. 2100 BCE
- Building of the First Palace at Knossosc. 1900 BCE
- Sargon of Akkad founds the world's first empirec. 2334 BCE
- Senusret III's Nubian campaigns and administrative centralisationc. 1850 BCE
- Code of Hammurabi inscribed on the basalt stelec. 1755 BCE
- Reforms of Urukagina of Lagashc. 2350 BCE
Further reading
The wider story
Africa: A Biography of the Continent
Sweeping, readable deep history of Africa from human origins to the colonial eve.
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