So we all know about Egypt. The great pharaos and their dynasties. I was watching documentaries on the end of bronze age and the collapse of all the cities, yet egypt made it through. What makes me curious is how did egypt survived for thousand of years. When was egypt's identity formed? Internal strife is usually the main reason empires fall, and egypt was no different Dynasties trampled each other, rulers changed and changed. How did the identity of efypt surcove throughout all of this time? Was it the culture that kept the identity, regardless of which dynasty rules?
There's always more to be said on the topic, but I touched on this in Ancient Egypt is often described as the longest continuous human civilization and seems to have maintained a surprising amount of cultural continuity. How accurate is this description? If so, why were they able to maintain continuity so much more than other civilizations?
It's worth noting that Egypt as a unified kingdom slowly ceased to exist by the end of the 12th century BCE - much like the other powers of the Late Bronze Age - and consisted of several competing polities during the Third Intermediate Period. Whereas states in the Near East like the (Neo-)Hittite kingdoms never reunified, however, Egypt was reunified after a period of about 300 years.
