Thus began the first dynasty of Egyptian pharaohs. .
The Old Kingdom comprised all the way up through the sixth dynasty of Egyptian rulers. This was a time of great wealth, splendor, and prosperity. The wealth of Egypt during this time period is made very clear in that the greatest pyramids in the history of the country were built to house the tombs of certain pharaohs. .
Probably the most distinct feature of this period in Egypt's past was the idea that the pharaoh was a divine institution. The entire political, spiritual, and economical structure of Egypt was centered around the concept that the pharaoh was a god incarnate that was placed on the planet to control the flooding of the River Nile for the agricultural good of the country. They believed him to be "a god by whose dealings one lives, the father and the mother of all men, alone by himself, without an equal". Because of this, people believed that by obeying the pharaoh they were keeping the cosmic order straight. A collapse of the power of the pharaoh could only mean that the people were offending the gods and by this weakening the very universal structure. All of this gave the pharaoh's words complete and supreme power. He ruled by divine decree alone. However, the pharaoh was not to rule arbitrarily, but by a set of principles the Old Kingdom's people believed in called Ma"at. This was supposedly all justice and morality that the pharaoh was supposed to uphold. .
By the fourth dynasty of the Old Kingdom, the pharaoh was not ruling by himself. A bureaucracy with regular administrative procedures began to develop. The most important position in the Old Kingdom's system of government was the vizier, or "steward of the whole land." This man would be second only to the pharaoh himself and was responsible for all aspects of the peoples" daily lives, thus freeing the pharaoh to tend to his divine duties. The vizier oversaw police, justice, river transport, and the tax base on agriculture that brought money into the palace.
