Pepi II

He was a child of six when he wore the heavy double crown. His long life spanned almost an entire century, outliving his children, his grandchildren, and the strength of the kingdom itself. In the early decades of his rule, his court launched profitable expeditions deep into the red hills of the eastern desert and down the coast of Nubia, bringing back exotic trees and ivory.

As the years lengthened, however, the old king sat in his palace in Memphis while the provincial governors (nomarchs) grew increasingly wealthy and independent. They stopped sending their tribute to the central treasury, burying themselves in spectacular, rock-cut tombs in their own territories.

Severe low floods began to wither the wheat fields, and the granaries emptied. The central administration, slowed by a massive and aging bureaucracy, could not distribute food to the starving provinces.

When his breathing finally stopped after ninety-four years on the throne, the centralized power of Memphis shattered. He had held the crown for so long that when he was gone, there was no one left to hold the country together, plunging Egypt into the First Intermediate Period.