Hyksos

The Hyksos (Egyptian heka khasewet) were an ethnically mixed group of Western Asiatic people who appeared in the eastern Nile Delta during the Second Intermediate Period. They overthrew the weak Egyptian Thirteenth Dynasty, whose capital was near Memphis, and formed the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Dynasties of Egypt, (ca. 1674-1548 B.C.E. See Egyptian chronology), ruling Lower and Middle Egypt for over one hundred years.

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Traditionally, only the six Fifteenth Dynasty rulers are called "Hyksos". The Hyksos had names that bear strong similarities to Canaanite names, and archaeologists think of the Canaanites as being indistinguishable from the Phoenicians. The Hyksos introduced new tools of warfare into Egypt, most notably the composite bow, the horse, and the horse-drawn chariot.

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The numerous Sixteenth Dynasty princes are believed to be a mixed collection of "Hyksos", Asiatic Semites, and local native Egyptian princes who had no choice but to support their new overlords. The names of the Fifteenth Dynasty Hyksos are known from Egyptian monuments, scarabs and other small objects, and Manetho's history of Egypt, written during the time of Ptolemy II.

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Egyptian: The term Egyptian can refer to:...

Nile Delta: The Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the River Nile spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas – from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 230 km of Mediterranean coastline – and it is...

Second Intermediate Period: REDIRECT Second Intermediate Period of Egypt...