The history of Egypt is the longest continuous history, as a unified state, of any country in the world. The Nile valley forms a natural geographic and economic unit, bounded to the east and west by deserts, to the north by the sea and to the south by the Cataracts of the Nile. The need to have a single authority to manage the waters of the Nile led to the creation of the world's first state in Egypt in about 3000 BC. Egypt's peculiar geography made it a difficult country to attack, which is why Pharaonic Egypt was for so long an independent and self-contained state.

Once Egypt did succumb to foreign rule, however, it proved unable to escape from it, and for 2,400 years Egypt was governed by foreigners: Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Turks, French, and British. (The Hyksos were among the earliest foreign rulers of Egypt, but the ancient Egyptians regained control of their country after the Hykso period.) When Gamal Abdel Nasser (President of Egypt 1954–1970) remarked that he was the first native Egyptian to exercise sovereign power in the country since Pharaoh Nectanebo II, deposed by the Persians in 343 BC, he was only exaggerating slightly.

There are several open problems concerning ancient Egyptian history. Conclusions on the origins of the Hyksos and their first leaders are disputed. It is unclear if the "Nubian Dark Age" really occurred in the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty of Egypt. There is question if the First Intermediate Period of Egypt really was a Dark Age. It is unknown why there were Minoan paintings in Avaris. The exact relationship between the Minoan civilization and the Egyptian civilization is debated. The Battle of Kadesh is ambiguous and who was its victor is open to debate.

There are several events concerning ancient Egyptian history that are questioned. The exact nature of the reign of Pharaoh Smendes I's is unknown. It is unknown if Egypt was split during his governance. The facts are obscure as to whether Ramesses II defended Egypt against the Sea People because they were invading, or if they were people fleeing to Egypt in the middle of a war. Data is either not available or not known as to if Ramesses III or Amenemhat I were assassinated. The exact causes concerning the disappearance of Nefertiti are unknown. It is debated if Necho II really sent out an expedition that sailed from the Red Sea around Africa back to the mouth of the Nile. The Tulli Papyrus is a controversial topic and it is debated if it comes from the reign of Thutmosis III.

The events that Herodotus records of Egypt are suspicious to some scholars, and there is question on what he actually witnessed in Egypt. Exactly who Herodotus exchanged ideas with and had onversations with is debated. It is uncertain who Sonchis was, an Egyptian priest of Thebes, and why Plato wrote about Atlantis as described by this priest. It is questioned if Solon met Sonchis. It is unclear why Solon visited Egypt (if he really did).

For many occurrences there is very little evidence, but whole edifices of connections, interrelations, influences and causes have been constructed by serious, well meaning experts often on the flimsiest of grounds.

One would like to think that physical remains should leave little to doubt. But stone artefacts and buildings are remarkably difficult to date. Theories - from the sublime to the ridiculous - of when, how, why and by whom the Great Pyramids, for instance, have been erected, are legion.

Written records engender other problems. The texts are sometimes partly illegible, making translation and interpretation even more difficult and uncertain than they would be if they were in pristine condition and ancient Egyptian were not a dead language. There are also ancient attempts at rewriting history. Inscriptions left by pharaohs in full view of the (mostly illiterate) public are probably even less reliable than the news fed to the media by the Pentagon during the Vietnam war. A good example of this government propaganda is the Egyptian account of the battle of Kadesh.

Tomb inscriptions of high and low alike also have to be read with suspicion. Rather than reflecting reality faithfully they seem to have been intended to convince the gods of the impeccable character of the deceased.

More trustworthy than royal self-congratulations and post-mortem embellishments of the curriculum vitae of officials are texts written during the ordinary course of life by some men and a few women of the people with a little education, often referred to as love letters, laundry lists and the like. The problem with these is that they are very specific, and given a scarcity of similar information, might well refer to an exceptional case rather than reflect the rule.

There is also the oral tradition. Passed on through many generations and finally written down, these stories give a better picture of the times of those who put it to papyrus than of the events they purport to describe.Herodotus'marvellous stories are a case in point. Getting at the kernel of truth possibly hidden in theses garbled tales is more of an art than science.

These are just a few of the many stumbling blocks the path to knowledge seems to be plastered with. So the history we've got nowadays is the best we have come up with - so far.