Hyksos: The Rulers of Foreign Lands Who Transformed Egypt (opens in new tab)

The Hyksos were a West Semitic-speaking people who gained a foothold in Egypt circa 1782 BCE at the city of Avaris in Lower Egypt, thus initiating the era known in Egyptian history as the Second Intermediate Period (circa 1782 to circa 1570 BCE). Though villified by later Egyptian scribes, the innovations they introduced transformed Egypt, and without them, there would have been no Egyptian Empire.