3100 BC to 2200 BC

Two lands become one

Farming villages line the Nile from about 5000 BC. Around 3100 BC Upper and Lower Egypt are united under one king, and hieroglyphic writing appears. Bounded by deserts and by the First Cataract at Aswan, the Nile valley becomes one of the oldest territorial states on earth. The pyramids of Giza date from this Old Kingdom.