rincelings and monarchs had been
growing in culture, wealth and power, and after Pepi II. an ominous gap
in the monuments, pointing to civil war, marks the end of the Old
Kingdom. The VIIth and VIIIth Dynasties are said to have been Memphite,
but of them no record survives beyond some names of kings in the lists.

Heracleopolite period.

_The Middle Kingdom._--The long Memphite rule was broken by the IXth and
Xth Dynasties, of Heracleopolis Magna (Hes) in Middle Egypt. Kheti or
Achthoes was apparently a favourite name with the kings, but they are
very obscure. They may have spread their rule by conquest over Upper
Egypt and then overthrown the Memphite dynasty. The chief monuments of
the period are certain inscribed tombs at Assiut; it appears that one of
the kings, whose praenomen was Mikere, supported by a fleet and army
from Upper Egypt, and especially by the prince of Assiut, was restored
to his paternal city of Heracleopolis, from which he had probably been
driven out; his pyramid, however, was built in the old royal necropolis
at Memphis. Later the princes of Thebes asserted their independence and
founded the XIth Dynasty, which pushed its frontiers northwards until
finally it occupied the whole country. Its kings were named Menthotp,
from Mont, one of the gods of Thebes; others, perhaps sub-kings, were
named Enyotf (Antef). They were buried at Thebes, whence the coffins of
several were obtained by the early collectors of the 19th century.
Nibhotp Menthotp I. probably established his rule over all Egypt. The
funerary temple of Nebhepre Menthotp III., the last but one of these
kings, has been excavated by the Egypt Exploration Fund at Deir el
Bahri, and must have been a magnificent monument. His successor
Sankhkere Menthotp IV. is known to have sent an expedition by the Red
Sea to Puoni.

The XIIth Dynasty is the central point of the Middle Kingdom, to which
the decline of the Memphite and the rise of the Heracleopolite dynasty
mark the transition, while the growth of Thebes under the XIth Dynasty
is its true starting-point. Monuments of the XIIth Dynasty are abundant
and often of splendid design and workmanship, whereas previously there
had been little produced since the VIth Dynasty that was not half
barbarous. Although not much of the history of the XIIth Dynasty is
ascertained, the Turin Papyrus and many dated inscriptions fix the
succession and length of reign of the eight kings very accurately. The
tro