Ancient Egypt Historical Information

Since there isn't much of an Egypt discussion here, I thought I might make a topic about it.  Anyways, does anyone know which sources give the most information on Egyptian history?  Also, how much do we know about Egyptian history relative to other civilizations, i.e. Greece, Rome, Persia, etc.?

 

We actually know much less about Egypt than about Greece or Rome.  For the Greeks and Romans, we have narrative histories written by people who either had records, other histories, and witnesses at their disposal or were actual witnesses to the events they described.  As for Egypt, we don't actually have a "history" written down by an Egyptian (Manetho not withstanding) which described what went on in its history.  We have dynastic lists, royal inscriptions, a few stories, military records, and other incidental inscriptions which have survived time, but there is nothing which ties them together into a coherent narrative.  Histories of Egypt written down by both Greeks and Egyptians (Manetho), only refer to merely a small fraction of the kings of Egypt we now recognize, and even then, these stories are of merely a mythological character.  If we are to talk about proportions, imagine a nation like the Egyptians whose Kingdom had lasted 3000 years, and compare that to that of the Greeks and Romans combined!!!  We know way more about the Greeks and the Romans combined than we know about the Egyptians.

Yes, compared with the Hittites, Mitanni, and Medians, Egypt is more well known.  The reason for this is first of all, geography.  Egypt was a virtual cultural isolate, having an inhospitable desert protecting it from Asia, the sea to the north, cataracts in the south, and more desert in the west.  Its geographic position therefore protected it from most invasions.  It was the Hyksos which proved to the Egyptians that they could no longer live in isolation to other nations, and thus began their great expansion into Asia.  Until the Assyrian invasion, the Egyptians simply absorbed foreigners, Egyptianizing them.  Egyptian culture, protected by its geography took deep root and could not be uprooted even into the Hellenistic age, when the Ptolemies adopted Egyptian cultural conventions.  The Greeks certainly felt the weight of Egyptian civilization, at least theorizing that important facits of their culture was derived from the Egyptians. 

Now, perhaps the main reason for the lack of the known history of Egypt was because of the mindset of the Egyptians themselves.  They saw their isolated civilization as timeless and thus conservative.  If the bedouin attacked, it was just something they always did.  If the king attacked the bedouin, it was just something he always did.   Conventions developed in earliest times continued for thousands of years.  In terms of literature, the Egyptians were more concerned with recording facits of their culture including ritual and myth for future generations.  According to one authority there are only four surviving texts which can be classified as "historical" approximating the modern concept of history.  The rest, used by historians are the skeletal Kinglists, which were originally intended to serve the needs of the temple and the kings themselves rather than to be used by the Egyptians to write "history".