Glossary · Term

First Intermediate Period

c. 2181–2055 BCE · 22nd century BCE

The First Intermediate Period is the era of ancient Egyptian history between the collapse of the Old Kingdom and the reunification of the country in the Middle Kingdom. Royal authority at Memphis faded after the Sixth Dynasty, and power passed to provincial governors and rival lines at Herakleopolis and Thebes, until Mentuhotep II of Thebes reunited Egypt around 2055 BCE.

First Intermediate Period
Image: Jeff Dahl · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 1 profile

Middle Kingdom of EgyptFoundation, Summary

Mentioned in 2 state histories

Old Kingdom of EgyptEighth Dynasty of Egypt

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). First Intermediate Period. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/first-intermediate-period
MLA
“First Intermediate Period.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/first-intermediate-period. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “First Intermediate Period.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/first-intermediate-period.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘First Intermediate Period’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/first-intermediate-period (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻