The Middle Kingdom of Egypt is the period in the history of ancient Egypt stretching from the establishment of the Eleventh Dynasty to the end of the Fourteenth Dynasty, between 2055 BCE and 1650 BCE, although some writers include the Thirteenth and Fourteenth dynasties in the Second Intermediate Period.

During this period, the funerary cult of Osiris rises to dominate Egyptian popular religion.The period comprises two phases, the 11th Dynasty, which rules from Thebes and the 12th Dynasty onwards which was centered around el-Lisht.

These two dynasties are originally considered to be the full extent of this unified kingdom, but historians now consider the 13th Dynasty to at least partially belong to the Middle Kingdom.