The ancient Egyptian empire moved as much as more than a dozen capitals in its history, most notably Memphis, Thebes, Amarna and Alexandria. 2-3000 to pre-dynastic years, until the unification of Egypt, the capital of Upper and Lower Egypt moved between no less than eleven cities - including higher capital Thinis, Nennusu, Khmun, Abydos and Thebes, while as Lower Egypt were Avaris, Tanis, Sais, Bubastis, Heliopolis and Memphis among its prime locations.
Ancient kingdom during the reign of Menes or Narmer during this time, the capital was Memphis. The Third Dynasty (2686-2613 BC) is often called the beginning of the Old Kingdom. First Intermediate Period: Memphis could not hold on to its title of capital, and went to Thebes as the capital when the Theban king Mentuhotep Nebhepetre won a civil war around 1650 BC and established his home town as its capital. During this time, Egypt was low. Hieracleopolis first, then Thebes became the capital.
New kingdom during this period, Queen Hatshepsut ruled. His images of the monuments were then removed, probably for political reasons. Akhenaten (originally called Amunhotep IV) abolished all the Egyptian gods except for Aten, the disc of the sun visible, and sets the capital to Akhetaten (Amarna). During the period of Akhenaten, Amarna was Capial Egypt. its inception has been an alarming increase in the population of people flocked to the house of their king.
Some estimate of the population of the city have been as much as fifty thousand, bringing immediately in line with other major cities. Egypt went into decline during his reign. After the death of Akhenaten Tutankhamun restored the capital to Thebes, and destroys all mention of Akhenaten and the Aten. Egypt slowly returned to glory. Third Intermediate Period: In this period (1069-525 B. C. E.), Tanis became the capital city. One famous king was Sheshonq I.