Ancient Egypt can be defined in three periods: ; the Old Kingdom from 2649 to 2152 BCE, the Middle Kingdom from 2046 to 1640 BCE, and the New Kingdom from 1550 to 1070 BCE. There are smaller intermediate kingdoms located between the three main kingdoms, but nothing really significant happened during this time. Egypt can also be divided into different dynasties. These dynasties are divided into different families who were pharaohs who ruled Egypt. There are a total of thirty-one dynasties recorded, this is not the exact number of pharaohs, and some are suppressed or forgotten. The crown of Egypt was usually passed from father to first or favorite son, but in some cases women received the crown.