But the nomes were so powerful by the time of the sixth dynasty that Pepi I married into their ranks and produced half-caste successors. It became more difficult because the government would not send workers to work for him and those who did, did not need to pay taxes. The result of no income to the town was the result of the downfall of the Old Kingdom. By 2160 B.C.E marks the beginning of what historians call the First Intermediate Period.
The First Intermediate Period, was described as the "dark period" in Ancient Egyptian history, spanned about three hundred years after the end of the Old Kingdom from 2181-2055 B.C.E. It covered the seventh dynasty to some eleventh dynasty. The First Intermediate Period was an aggressive time in history where rules of Egypt were harshly divided between two battling power bases, Upper and Lower Egypt. During the time of this war the Asiatics came in from the Delta and became the farmers and took care of the Egyptians during the war. When the war was over unfortunately the Asiatics were the ones that got blamed even though they did nothing but help get everyone through this hard time. Mostly because they were foreigners and foreigners did not belong in Egypt. By the eleventh dynasty Mentuhotep I was the new king and began to unify Upper and Lower Egypt. He brought all of the wealth and power back to Delta. Except Thebes won the civil war, the people we so tired of fighting that they just caved in, and Thebes became the new capital of Egypt and the start of the twelfth dynasty.
Egyptians were not greatly concerned with how humanity came into existence but mostly how life will be re-created. The heart of Egyptian religion lay the myths of the gods Osiris and Isis. Osiris was in a sense the first Pharaoh, the first god to hold kingship on earth. Many story are told about Osiris's death but in the end because he was a good man he was able to be mummified and taken into the afterlife.