Nomarchs were the semi-feual rulers of Ancient Egyptian provinces. Serving as provincial governors, they each held authority over one of the 42 nomes (Egyptian: sepat) into which the country was divided. Both nome and nomarch are terms derived from the Greek nomos, meaning a province or district. The nomarchs exercised considerable power in the period from the breakdown of the Old Kingdom, the First Intermediate Period to the rise of the New Kingdom at the end of the Second Intermediate Period, when stronger centralized control was once again established.