The first and most enduring capital of Egypt was Memphis which is located southwest of modern Cairo, near the junction of Nile valley and the Delta.It was founded at the beginning of the Dynastic period or earlier, no doubt rapidly eclispsing the late predynastic capital of Hierakonpolis .The city's earliest name was probably Ineb-hedj ('white walls"), very likely a reference to a royal palace. It later the nearby necropolis of pepy I at saqqara. "Memphis" is a Greek version of Men-nefer.
The emergence of a Theban family of pharaohs at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom saw Thebes, in Upper Egypt, transformed into a powerful religious and administrative centre which later rivaled Memphis during the Eighteenth Dynasty (ca.1539-1292BCE) and after.
However, the capital of the Twelfth Dynasty (ca. 1938-1759BCE) was a new city, Itj-tawy ("Amenemhet I is) seizer of the Two lands"), to the east of the early Twelfth- Dynasty necropolis at el-Lisht. The history of the Twelfth and thirteenth dynasties is very much one of political and economic centralization toward Itj-tawy.
At the end of the Thirteenth Dynasty (ca. 1759-after 1630BCE), THE Middle Kingdom rules were forced to retreat southward to Thebes with the emergence of the Asiatic Hyksos rules in the north .
They established their capital at Avaris (modern Tell el-Dab a) in the eastern Delta, and transformed this small Egyptian town into as Asiatic city typical of contemporary Syria-palestine.
In the sixteenth century BCE, the Hyksos were expelled and the incoming Eighteenth Dynasty restored Memphis to its former importance. The home of the dynasty, Thebes, became the burial place of New Kingdom pharaohs and took on administrative significance. However, Akhenaten (ca. 1353-1336BCE) founded his own capital, Akhenaten, in Middle Egypt.
Akhenaten has furnished many fascinating details of everyday urban life, but the radical innovations of Akhenaten's reign (see pp.128-9) mean that it was probably not typical of Egyptian capital cities .
By the reign of sety I (ca. 1290-1279BCE), Egypt's focus had shifted north to encompass its new sphere of influence in the Near East. Sety's successors built a new city, piramesse, in the Delta, which became the power base of the Ramesside Kings of the thirteenth and twelfth centuries BCE. However, Thebes and the traditional capital, Memphis still both seems to have performed religious and administrative functions.
During the Third Intermediate period, Egypt was split between Upper Egypt, ruled by the High priests of Amun at Thebes, and the Delta, ruled by pharaohs of Libyan descent based at Tanis. Founded by psusennes I (ca.1045-997BCE), Tanis was built mainly of stone from piramesse and Avrias, which were also the source of the new town’s statuary. When the Kushite pharaoh piye (ca. 747-716BCE) reconquered the north, he claimed to have subjugated as many as ten rules, each with a different capital city.
The bias toward a northern power base continued in the Late period, with sais in the Delta (modern sa el-Hagar) becoming the capital for much of the time. The seal was set upon Egypt’s absorption into the Mediterranean world when Alexander the Great (332-323BCE) founded a new capital, Alexandria, on the Mediterranean coast. This Hellenistic city, facing toward Europe, was to be the last eapital of ancient Egypt.
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