t they needed him to assure themselves a place in the afterlife. They believed that they could obtain eternity themselves by using symbols of the monarchy from the Old Kingdom as well as magical spells, which they collected from the Pyramid Texts. The nobles had their own large tombs, but they "were no longer constructed near the King's pyramid but were scattered more independently across the necropolis, and the high quality of the wall-decoration in these tombs indicated their owner's importance" (David 129). The political structure of the Middle Kingdom was also changing from that of the Old Kingdom. In the past, the government was run by only the immediate family of the Pharaoh, in the Middle Kingdom however, "he began to marry into the wealthy but non-royal nobility, destroying the fictional divinity of the royal line" (David 131). Around 1674 B.C., the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt separated once again. This Second Intermediate Period saw the Hyksos, Semitic invaders from Palestine, come and overtake the Egyptian ruling class. These peoples were expelled from Egypt around 1553 B.C., which gave rise to the New Kingdom of Egypt. The capital was moved to Thebes and "these rulers attributed their ascendancy over the Hyksos to the powerful support of their local god; Amun. ...The kings eventually associated him with the old northern sun-god Re, creating the all new powerful deity Amen-Re" (David 147). Also at this time, there began a new imperialistic movement within the Egyptian culture, and we see several crusades into Asia and the Mid-East during this time frame. Egypt ruled in Asia for about a century or so, but lost it due to the lack of interest on the part of the royal court in the contents of its Asian subjects. Though for the most part, the Egyptian religion remained as it had in the previous kingdoms during the first part of the New Kingdom. Amenhotep IV, or Akhenaten as he later changed his name to, brought about ma...
