By the time of the Old Kingdom, mastery over the Libyans and the Nubians had become a state symbol of the Pharaoh's military prowess. The relief carvings in the Old Kingdom mortuary temples (note 6) portray stock scenes of a Libyan chief being smitten by the Pharaoh, while the victim's wife and children beg for mercy. However, the personal names for the Libyans in all three scenes are generic and that suggests that these carvings didn`t actually record specific historical events, but perpetuated an elaborate icon of Egyptian kingship. However, that doesn't take away from the fact that periodically the Egyptians had to undertake significant punitive campaigns against the Libyans.

The Pharaoh Menes is supposed to have taken 12,000 Libyans as prisoners in campaigns around 3200 BC (note 7). Even during the pre- dynastic period, temple reliefs frequently show Libyans as a defeated enemy, and there are records from the reigns of the Old Kingdom Pharaohs Snefru and Sahure and specific campaigns against Libyans. During the following reign, that of Ramsis II, the Egyptians constructed a series of coastal fortresses running west to the region of Marsa Matruh, and the presence of these fortresses suggests a serious ongoing threat from the west. And during the New Kingdom reigns of Merneptah and Ramsis III, the Egyptians had to stave off major invasions from Libyans. During the reign of Merneptah it seems the early warning system set up in his father's time had fallen into disuse, and as a result there was an unexpected Libyan invasion into the Nile Delta in Year 5 of his reign. (note 8)

During the reign of Ramsis III, the growing conflict between the Egyptians and Libyans again came to a head. Around 1185 Ramsis III killed or captured 4,200 Meshwesh warriors together with 93 chariots and 183 horses, which suggested they had become more sophisticated. This time, it was the Meshwesh who instigated the war, though other Libyan tribes and some Sea People allies were involved in fighting in the two major campaigns against the Egyptian king, in Ramsis III's reign. The Year 11 campaign was almost exclusively against the Meshwesh, however. Ramsis claimed victory, and settled the Meshwesh in military concentration camps in Middle Egypt in order to force their assimilation into Egyptian culture and press them into military service for the Egyptian state.

The Meshwesh eventually became an influential group within Egyptian society. In fact, by the 22nd Dynasty, they even gained temporary control of Egypt.