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Egypt's capital.

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by smorris (U14766454) on Thursday, 27th January 2011

  What was the capital of Egypt in its heyday?
  
  
  
  Smorris

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Mutatis_Mutandis (U8620894) on Friday, 28th January 2011

  Your question is a difficult one because in its long history, Egypt had a lot of ups and downs. Excluding the parts of its history when it was ruled by (relative) foreigners, there are still the periods conventionally called the Old, Middle and New Kingdom. Which period you consider its heyday is a matter of taste -- the Old Kingdom built the pyramids, the New Kingdom had the empire-building conquerors.
  
  Egypt's geographical length along the Nile always made it difficult to find a good capital, and there were quite a number of relocations and new foundations. Probably the court was also on the move a lot, meeting various military and ceremonial obligations, and spreading the burden of its maintenance. But the cities with the best claims were Memphis, at the base of the Delta in the north, and Thebes in the south. (As many names we use for locations in Egypt, they are Greek.)
  
  The location of Memphis made it a fairly logical choice of capital, and a number of other cities in the delta also served. Thebes in the far south seems to have benefitted mainly from its access to mineral resources that were scarcer in the alluvial plains of the delta, specifically gold.
  
  

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  , in reply to message 2.

  Posted by shivfan (U2435266) on Sunday, 6th February 2011

  And of course, it was briefly relocated to Amarna under Akenhaton....

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