Egypt’s Old Kingdom in Contact with the World

Throughout the Old Kingdom period, the Egyptian state maintained close relations with all the regions surrounding the Nile valley. At the time when the pharaonic state launched monumental construction projects—notably the building of the gigantic pyramids of the Fourth Dynasty—the exploitation of mineral resources in the desert margins and in more distant areas was sharply accentuated. The establishment of harbors on the Red Sea shore served to reach the south of the Sinai peninsula for the exploitation of copper and turquoise, as well as to bring back aromatics and exotic products from the land of Punt in the Bab el-Mandab area. The need for labor to realize building projects and develop the Egyptian infrastructure, for example as required to control major trade routes, led to repeated military raids against Libya, Nubia, and the Levant. Drawing on archaeology and written sources, including the tomb autobiographies of state officials of the Sixth Dynasty, this chapter offers perspectives on the complex military and diplomatic activities that linked the Old Kingdom to the surrounding regions.