The
history of Ancient Egypt spans the period from the early
predynastic settlements of
Contents
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Chronology 1
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Neolithic Egypt 2
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Neolithic period 2.1
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Predynastic period 2.2
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Dynastic Egypt 3
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Early dynastic period 3.1
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Old Kingdom 3.2
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First Intermediate Period 3.3
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Middle Kingdom 3.4
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Second Intermediate Period and the Hyksos 3.5
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New Kingdom 3.6
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Eighteenth Dynasty 3.6.1
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Nineteenth Dynasty 3.6.2
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Twentieth Dynasty 3.6.3
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Third Intermediate Period 3.7
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Late Period 3.8
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Persian domination 3.9
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Ptolemaic dynasty 3.10
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Notes and references 4
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Further reading 5
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Pharaonic Egypt 5.1
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Ptolemaic Egypt 5.2
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External links 6
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Chronology
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Note
- For alternative 'revisions' to the chronology of Egypt, see Egyptian chronology.
Egypt's history is split into several different periods according to the ruling dynasty of each pharaoh.
The dating of events is still a subject of research. The conservative
dates are not supported by any reliable absolute date for a span of
about three millennia. The following is the list according to conventional Egyptian chronology.
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Predynastic Period (Prior to 3100 BC)
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Protodynastic Period (Approximately 3100–3000 BC)
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Early Dynastic Period (1st–2nd Dynasties)
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Old Kingdom (3rd–6th Dynasties)
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First Intermediate Period (7th–11th Dynasties)
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Middle Kingdom (12th–13th Dynasties)
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Second Intermediate Period (14th–17th Dynasties)
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New Kingdom (18th–20th Dynasties)
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Third Intermediate Period (21st–25th Dynasties) (also known as the Libyan Period)
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Late Period (26th–31st Dynasties)
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Neolithic period
The Nile has been the lifeline for Egyptian culture since nomadic hunter-gatherers began living along it during the Pleistocene.
Traces of these early people appear in the form of artifacts and rock
carvings along the terraces of the Nile and in the oases. To the
Egyptians the Nile meant life and the desert meant death, though the
desert did provide them protection from invaders.
Along the Nile, in the 12th millennium BC, a grain-grinding
culture using the earliest type of sickle blades had replaced the
culture of hunters, fishers, and gathering people using stone tools. Evidence also indicates human habitation and cattle herding in the southwestern corner of Egypt, near the Sudan border, before 8000 BC. But according to Barbara Barich the idea of an independent bovine domestication event in Africa must be abandoned because subsequent evidence gathered over a period of thirty years has failed to corroborate this.[1] In light of this the oldest known domesticated bovine remains in Africa are from the Fayum c. 4400 BC.[2]
Geological evidence and computer climate modeling studies suggest that
natural climate changes around 8000 BC began to desiccate the extensive
pastoral lands of northern Africa, eventually forming the Sahara (c. 2500 BC).
Continued desiccation forced the early ancestors of the Egyptians
to settle around the Nile more permanently and forced them to adopt a
more sedentary lifestyle. However, the period from 9000 to 6000 BC has
left very little in the way of archaeological evidence.
Predynastic period
The Nile Valley of Egypt was basically uninhabitable until the
work of clearing and irrigating the land along the banks of the river
was started.[3] However it
appears that this clearance and irrigation was largely under way by
about 6000 BC. By that time, society in the Nile Valley was already
engaged in organized agriculture and the construction of large buildings
in the Nile Valley.[4] At this time, Egyptians in the southwestern corner of Egypt were herding cattle and also constructing large buildings. Mortar was in use by 4000 BC. The people of the Nile Valley and on delta were self-sufficient and were raising barley and emmer (an early variety of wheat) and stored it in pits lined with reed mats.[5] They raised cattle, goats and pigs and they wove linens and baskets.[5] The Predynastic Period continues through this time, variously held to begin with the Naqada culture.
Between 5500 and 3100 BC, during Egypt's Predynastic Period, small settlements flourished along the Nile, whose delta empties into the Mediterranean Sea. By 3300 BC, just before the first Egyptian dynasty, Egypt was divided into two kingdoms, known as Upper Egypt, Ta Shemau, to the south, and Lower Egypt, Ta Mehu, to the north.[6] The dividing line was drawn roughly in the area of modern Cairo.
Dynastic Egypt
Early dynastic period
The historical records of ancient Egypt begin with Egypt as a
unified state, which occurred sometime around 3150 BC. According to
Egyptian tradition Menes,
thought to have unified Upper and Lower Egypt, was the first king. This
Egyptian culture, customs, art expression, architecture, and social
structure was closely tied to religion, remarkably stable, and changed
little over a period of nearly 3000 years.
Egyptian chronology, which involves regnal years, began around this time. The conventional Egyptian chronology
is the chronology accepted during the twentieth century, but it does
not include any of the major revision proposals that also have been made
in that time. Even within a single work, archaeologists often offer
several possible dates, or even several whole chronologies as
possibilities. Consequently, there may be discrepancies between dates
shown here and in articles on particular rulers or topics related to
ancient Egypt. There also are several possible spellings of the names.
Typically, Egyptologists divide the history of pharaonic civilization
using a schedule laid out first by Manetho's Aegyptiaca (History of Egypt) that was written during the Ptolemaic era, during the third century BC.
Prior to the unification of Egypt, the land was settled with
autonomous villages. With the early dynasties, and for much of Egypt's
history thereafter, the country came to be known as the Two Lands. The rulers established a national administration and appointed royal governors.
According to Manetho, the first king was Menes, but archeological findings support the view that the first pharaoh to claim to have united the two lands was Narmer (the final king of the Protodynastic Period). His name is known primarily from the famous Narmer Palette, whose scenes have been interpreted as the act of uniting Upper and Lower Egypt.
Funeral practices for the elite resulted in the construction of mastaba tombs, which later became models for subsequent Old Kingdom constructions such as the Step pyramid.
Old Kingdom
The Old Kingdom is most commonly regarded as spanning the period of time when Egypt was ruled by the Third Dynasty through to the Sixth Dynasty (2686–2134 BC). The royal capital of Egypt during the Old Kingdom was located at Memphis, where Djoser established his court. The Old Kingdom is perhaps best known, however, for the large number of pyramids,
which were constructed at this time as pharaonic burial places. For
this reason, the Old Kingdom is frequently referred to as "the Age of
the Pyramids." The first notable pharaoh of the Old Kingdom was Djoser (2630–2611 BC) of the Third Dynasty, who ordered the construction of a pyramid (the Step Pyramid) in Memphis' necropolis, Saqqara.
It was in this era that formerly independent ancient Egyptian states became known as nomes,
ruled solely by the pharaoh. Subsequently the former rulers were forced
to assume the role of governors or otherwise work in tax collection. Egyptians
in this era worshiped their pharaoh as a god, believing that he ensured
the annual flooding of the Nile that was necessary for their crops.
The Old Kingdom and its royal power reached their zenith under the
Mark Lehner have uncovered a large city that seems to have housed, fed
and supplied the pyramid workers. Although it was once believed that
slaves built these monuments, a theory based on the biblical Exodus story, study of the tombs of the workmen, who oversaw construction on the pyramids, has shown they were built by a corvée of peasants drawn from across Egypt. They apparently worked while the annual Nile
flood covered their fields, as well as a very large crew of
specialists, including stone cutters, painters, mathematicians and
priests.
The Fifth Dynasty began with Userkaf c. 2495 BC and was marked by the growing importance of the cult of sun god Ra.
Consequently, less efforts were devoted to the construction of pyramid
complexes than during the 4th Dynasty and more to the construction of
sun temples in Abusir. The decoration of pyramid complexes grew more
elaborate during the dynasty and its last king, Unas, was the first to have the pyramid texts inscribed in his pyramid. Egypt's expanding interests in trade goods such as ebony, incense such as myrrh and frankincense, gold, copper and other useful metals compelled the ancient Egyptians to navigate of the open seas. Evidence from the pyramid of Sahure,
second king of the dynasty, shows that a regular trade existed with the
Syrian coast to procure cedar wood. Pharaohs also launched expeditions
to the famed Land of Punt, possibly in modern day Ethiopia and Somalia, for ebony, ivory and aromatic resins.
During the sixth dynasty
(2345–2181 BC), the power of pharaohs gradually weakened in favor of
powerful nomarchs (regional governors). These no longer belonged to the
royal family and their charge became hereditary, thus creating local
dynasties largely independent from the central authority of the pharaoh.
Internal disorders set in during the incredibly long reign of Pepi II
(2278–2184 BC) towards the end of the dynasty. His death, certainly well
past that of his intended heirs, might have created succession
struggles and the country slipped into civil wars mere decades after the
close of Pepi II's reign. The final blow came when a severe drought struck the region during the 22nd century BC, producing consistently low Nile flood levels.[15] The result was the collapse of the Old Kingdom, followed by decades of famine and strife.
First Intermediate Period
After the fall of the Old Kingdom came a roughly 200-year stretch
of time known as the First Intermediate Period, which is generally
thought to include a relatively obscure set of pharaohs running from the
end of the Sixth to the Tenth, and most of the Eleventh
Dynasty. Most of these were likely local monarchs who did not hold much
power outside of their nome. There are a number of fictional texts
known as Lamentations from the early period of the subsequent Middle
Kingdom that may shed some light on what happened during this period.
Some of these texts reflect on the breakdown of rule, others allude to
invasion by "Asiatic bowmen". In general the stories focus on a society
where the natural order of things in both society and nature was
overthrown.
It is also highly likely that it was during this period that all
of the pyramid and tomb complexes were robbed. Further lamentation texts
allude to this fact, and by the beginning of the Middle Kingdom mummies
are found decorated with magical spells that were once exclusive to the
pyramid of the kings of the sixth dynasty.
By 2160 BC a new line of pharaohs (the Ninth and Tenth Dynasties) consolidated Lower Egypt from their capital in Herakleopolis Magna. A rival line (the Eleventh Dynasty) based at Thebes reunited Upper Egypt
and a clash between the two rival dynasties was inevitable. Around 2055
BC the Theban forces defeated the Heracleopolitan Pharaohs, reunited
the Two Lands. The reign of its first pharaoh, Mentuhotep II marks the beginning of the Middle Kingdom.
Middle Kingdom
The Middle Kingdom is the period in the history of ancient Egypt stretching from the 39th regnal year of Mentuhotep II of the Eleventh Dynasty to the end of the Thirteenth Dynasty, roughly between 2030 BC and 1650 BC.
The period comprises two phases, first the 11th Dynasty, which ruled from Thebes and then the 12th Dynasty, whose capital was el-Lisht. These two dynasties were originally considered the full extent of this unified kingdom, but some historians now[16] consider the first part of the 13th Dynasty to belong to the Middle Kingdom.
The earliest pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom traced their origin to two nomarch of Thebes, Intef the Great, son of Iku, who served an Herakleoplitan pharaoh of the Tenth Dynasty, and his successor Mentuhotep I. The successor of the latter, Intef I was the first Theban nomarch to claim an Horus name and thus the throne of Egypt. He is considered the first pharaoh of Eleventh Dynasty. His claims brought the Thebans into conflict with the rulers of the 10th Dynasty. Intef I and his brother Intef II undertook several campaigns northwards, finally captured the important nome of Abydos.
Warfare continued intermittently between the Thebean and
Heracleapolitan dynasties until the 39th vizier at the head of civil
administration for the country.
Mentuhotep II was succeeded by his son Mentuhotep IV, the final
pharaoh of this dynasty. Despite being absent from various lists of
pharaohs, his reign is attested from a few inscriptions in Wadi Hammamat that record expeditions to the Red Sea
coast and to quarry stone for the royal monuments. The leader of this
expedition was his vizier Amenemhat, who is widely assumed to be the
future pharaoh Amenemhet I, the first king of the 12th Dynasty.
Amenemhet is therefore assumed by some Egyptologists to have either
usurped the throne or assumed power after Mentuhotep IV died childless.
Amenemhat I built a new capital for Egypt, known as Itjtawy, thought to be located near the present-day el-Lisht, although the chronicler Manetho claims the capital remained at Thebes. Amenemhat forcibly pacified internal unrest, curtailed the rights of the nomarchs, and is known to have at launched at least one campaign into Nubia. His son Senusret I continued the policy of his father to recapture Nubia
and other territories lost during the First Intermediate Period. The
Libyans were subdued under his forty-five year reign and Egypt's
prosperity and security were secured.
Senusret III
(1878–1839 BC) was a warrior-king, leading his troops deep into Nubia,
and built a series of massive forts throughout the country to establish
Egypt's formal boundaries with the unconquered areas of its territory. Amenemhet III (1860–1815 BC) is considered the last great pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom.
Second Intermediate Period and the Hyksos
The Second Intermediate Period marks a period when Ancient Egypt once again fell into disarray between the end of the Middle Kingdom, and the start of the New Kingdom. This period is best known as the time the Hyksos (an Asiatic people) made their appearance in Egypt, the reigns of its kings comprising the Fifteenth Dynasty.
The Thirteenth Dynasty proved unable to hold onto the long land of
Egypt, and a provincial family of Canaanite descent located in the
marshes of the eastern Delta at Avaris broke away from the central authority to form the Fourteenth Dynasty. The splintering of the land most likely happened shorlty after the reign of the powerful Thirteenth Dynasty kings Neferhotep I and Sobekhotep IV c. 1720 BC.[17][18]
While the 14th Dynasty was of Canaanite descent, the Hyksos first
appeared in Egypt c. 1650 BC when they took control of the town of Avaris and rapidly moved south to Memphis,
thereby ending the 13th and 14th Dynasties. The outlines of the
traditional account of the "invasion" of the land by the Hyksos is
preserved in the Aegyptiaca of Manetho, who records that during this time the Hyksos overran Egypt, led by Salitis,
the founder of the Fifteenth Dynasty. More recently, however, the idea
of a simple migration, with little or no violence involved, has gained
some support.[19] Under
this theory, the Egyptian rulers of the 13th and 14th dynasties were
unable to stop these new migrants from travelling to Egypt from the
Levant because their kingdoms were struggling to cope with various
domestic problems including possibly famine and plague.[20]
Be it military or peaceful, the weakened state of the 13th and 14th
Dynasty kingdoms could explain why they rapidly fell to the emerging
Hyksos power.
The Hyksos princes and chieftains ruled in the eastern Delta with
their local Egyptian vassals. The Hyksos Fifteenth Dynasty rulers
established their capital and seat of government at Memphis and their summer residence at Avaris. The Hyksos kingdom was centered in the eastern Nile Delta and Middle Egypt
but relentlessly pushed south for the control of central and Upper
Egypt. Around the time Memphis fell to the Hyksos, the native Egyptian
ruling house in Thebes declared its independence and set itself up as the Sixteenth Dynasty.
Another short lived dynasty might have done the same in central Egypt,
profiting from the power vacuum created by the fall of the 13th dynasty
and forming the Abydos Dynasty.[21]
By 1600 BC the Hyksos had successfully moved south in central
Egypt, eliminating the Abydos Dynasty and directly threatening the 16th
Dynasty. The latter was to prove unable to resist and Thebes fell to the
Hyksos for a very short period c. 1580 BC.[21] The Hyksos rapidly withdrew to the north and Thebes regained some independence under the Seventeenth Dynasty.
From then on, Hyksos relations with the south seem to have been mainly
of a commercial nature, although Theban princes appear to have
recognized the Hyksos rulers and may possibly have provided them with tribute for a period.
The 17th Dynasty was to prove the salvation of Egypt and would
eventually lead the war of liberation that drove the Hyksos back into
Asia. The two last kings of this dynasty were Tao II the Brave and Kamose. Ahmose I completed the conquest and expulsion of the Hyksos from the delta region,
restored Theban rule over the whole of Egypt and successfully
reasserted Egyptian power in its formerly subject territories of Nubia and Canaan.[22] His reign marks this beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty and the New Kingdom period.
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New Kingdom
Possibly as a result of the foreign rule of the Hyksos
during the Second Intermediate Period, the New Kingdom saw Egypt
attempt to create a buffer between the Levant and Egypt, and attain its
greatest territorial extent. It expanded far south into Nubia and held wide territories in the Near East. Egyptian armies fought Hittite armies for control of modern-day Syria
-
Eighteenth Dynasty
This was a time of great wealth and power for Egypt. Some of the
most important and best-known Pharaohs ruled at this time. Hatshepsut
was a pharaoh at this time. Hatshepsut is unusual as she was a female
pharaoh, a rare occurrence in Egyptian history. She was an ambitious and
competent leader, extending Egyptian trade south into present-day
Somalia and north into the Mediterranean. She ruled for twenty years
through a combination of widespread propaganda and deft political skill.
Her co-regent and successor Thutmose III ("the Napoleon
of Egypt") expanded Egypt's army and wielded it with great success.
Late in his reign he ordered her name hacked out from her monuments. He
fought against Asiatic people and was the most successful of Egyptian
pharaohs. Amenhotep III built extensively at the temple of Karnak including the Luxor temple, which consisted of two pylons, a colonnade behind the new temple entrance, and a new temple to the goddess Ma'at.
Nineteenth Dynasty
Ramesses I reigned for two years and was succeeded by his son Seti I.
Seti I carried on the work of Horemheb in restoring power, control, and
respect to Egypt. He also was responsible for creating the temple
complex at Abydos.
Arguably Ancient Egypt's power as a nation-state peaked during the reign of Ramesses II
("the Great") of the 19th Dynasty. He reigned for 67 years from the age
of 18 and carried on his immediate predecessor's work and created many
more splendid temples, such as that of Abu Simbel on the Nubian border. He sought to recover territories in the Levant that had been held by 18th Dynasty Egypt. His campaigns of reconquest culminated in the Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BC, where he led Egyptian armies against those of the Hittite king Muwatalli II
and was caught in history's first recorded military ambush. Ramesses II
was famed for the huge number of children he sired by his various wives
and concubines; the tomb he built for his sons (many of whom he outlived) in the Valley of the Kings has proven to be the largest funerary complex in Egypt.
His immediate successors continued the military campaigns, though
an increasingly troubled court complicated matters. Ramesses II was
succeeded by his son Merneptah and then by Merenptah's son Seti II. Seti II's throne seems to have been disputed by his half-brother Amenmesse, who may have temporarily ruled from Thebes. Upon his death, Seti II son Siptah, who may have been afflicted with polio during his life, was appointed to the throne by Chancellor Bay, an Asiatic commoner who served as vizier behind the scenes. At Siptah's early death, the throne was assumed by Twosret,
the dowager queen of Seti II (and possibly Amenmesse's sister). A
period of anarchy at the end of Twosret's short reign saw a native
reaction to foreign control leading to the execution of the chancellor,
and placing Setnakhte on the throne, establishing the Twentieth Dynasty
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Twentieth Dynasty
The last "great" pharaoh from the New Kingdom is widely considered Ramesses III, the son of Setnakhte who reigned three decades after the time of Ramesses II. In Year 8 of his reign, the Sea People
invaded Egypt by land and sea. Ramesses III defeated them in two great
land and sea battles. He claimed that he incorporated them as subject
people and settled them in Southern Canaan, although there is evidence
that they forced their way into Canaan. Their presence in Canaan may
have contributed to the formation of new states in this region such as
Philistia after the collapse of the Egyptian Empire. He was also
compelled to fight invading Libyan tribesmen in two major campaigns in
Egypt's Western Delta in his Year 6 and Year 11 respectively.[23]
The heavy cost of these battles slowly exhausted Egypt's treasury
and contributed to the gradual decline of the Egyptian Empire in Asia.
The severity of these difficulties is stressed by the fact that the
first known labor strike in recorded history occurred during Year 29 of
Ramesses III's reign, when the food rations for the Egypt's favoured and
elite royal tomb-builders and artisans in the village of Deir el Medina could not be provisioned.[24]
Something in the air prevented much sunlight from reaching the ground
and also arrested global tree growth for almost two full decades until
1140 BC.[25] One proposed cause is the Hekla 3 eruption of the Hekla volcano in Iceland, but the dating of that event remains in dispute.
Following Ramesses III's death there was endless bickering between
his heirs. Three of his sons would go on to assume power as Ramesses IV, Ramesses VI and Ramesses VIII
respectively. However, at this time Egypt was also increasingly beset
by a series of droughts, below-normal flooding levels of the Nile, famine, civil unrest and official corruption. The power of the last pharaoh, Ramesses XI, grew so weak that in the south the High Priests of Amun at Thebes became the effective de facto rulers of Upper Egypt, while Smendes controlled Lower Egypt even before Ramesses XI's death. Smendes would eventually found the Twenty-First dynasty at Tanis.
Third Intermediate Period
After the death of Ramesses XI, his successor Smendes ruled from the city of Tanis in the north, while the High Priests of Amun at Thebes had effective rule of the south of the country, whilst still nominally recognizing Smendes as king.[26] In fact, this division was less significant than it seems, since both priests and pharaohs came from the same family. Piankh, assumed control of Upper Egypt, ruling from Thebes, with the northern limit of his control ending at Al-Hibah. (The High Priest Herihor
had died before Ramesses XI, but also was an all-but-independent ruler
in the latter days of the king's reign.) The country was once again
split into two parts with the priests in Thebes and the Pharaohs at
Tanis. Their reign seems without other distinction, and they were
replaced without any apparent struggle by the Libyan kings of the Twenty-Second Dynasty.
Egypt has long had ties with Libya, and the first king of the new dynasty, Shoshenq I, was a Meshwesh Libyan, who served as the commander of the armies under the last ruler of the Twenty-First Dynasty, Psusennes II. He unified the country, putting control of the Amun clergy
under his own son as the High Priest of Amun, a post that was
previously a hereditary appointment. The scant and patchy nature of the
written records from this period suggest that it was unsettled. There
appear to have been many subversive groups, which eventually led to the
creation of the Twenty-Third Dynasty,
which ran concurrent with the latter part of the Twenty-Second Dynasty.
The country was reunited by the Twenty-Second Dynasty founded by Shoshenq I in 945 BC (or 943 BC), who descended from Meshwesh immigrants, originally from Ancient Libya. This brought stability to the country for well over a century. After the reign of Osorkon II the country had again splintered into two states with Shoshenq III of the Twenty-Second Dynasty controlling Lower Egypt by 818 BC while Takelot II and his son (the future Osorkon III) ruled Middle and Upper Egypt.
After the withdrawal of Egypt from Nubia at the end of the New Kingdom, a native dynasty took control of Nubia. Under king Piye, the Nubian founder of Twenty-Fifth Dynasty,
the Nubians pushed north in an effort to crush his Libyan opponents
ruling in the Delta. Piye managed to attain power as far as Memphis. His opponent Tefnakhte ultimately submitted to him, but he was allowed to remain in power in Lower Egypt and founded the short-lived Twenty-Fourth Dynasty at Sais. The Kushite
kingdom to the south took full advantage of this division and political
instability and defeated the combined might of several native-Egyptian
rulers such as Peftjaubast, Osorkon IV of Tanis, and Tefnakht of Sais. Piye established the Nubian Twenty-Fifth Dynasty and appointed the defeated rulers as his provincial governors. He was succeeded first by his brother, Shabaka, and then by his two sons Shebitku and Taharqa. Taharqa reunited the "Two lands" of Northern and Southern Egypt and created an empire that was as large as it had been since the New Kingdom. The 25th dynasty ushered in a renaissance period for Ancient Egypt.[27]
Religion, the arts, and architecture were restored to their glorious
Old, Middle, and New Kingdom forms. Pharaohs, such as Taharqa, built or
restored temples and monuments throughout the Nile valley, including at
Memphis, Karnak, Kawa, Jebel Barkal, etc.[28] It was during the 25th dynasty that the Nile valley saw the first widespread construction of pyramids (many in modern Sudan) since the Middle Kingdom.[29][30][31]
The international prestige of Egypt declined considerably by this
time. The country's international allies had fallen under the sphere of
influence of Assyria and from about 700 BC the question became when, not if, there would be war between the two states. Taharqa's reign and that of his successor, Tanutamun,
were filled with constant conflict with the Assyrians against whom
there were numerous victories, but ultimately Thebes was occupied and Memphis sacked.
Late Period
From 671 BC on, Memphis and the Delta region became the target of many attacks from the Assyrians, who expelled the Nubians and handed over power to client kings of the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty. Psamtik I
was the first recognized as the king of the whole of Egypt, and he
brought increased stability to the country during a 54-year reign from
the new capital of Sais. Four successive Saite kings continued guiding Egypt successfully and peacefully from 610–526 BC, keeping the Babylonians away with the help of Greek mercenaries.
By the end of this period a new power was growing in the Near East: Persia. The pharaoh Psamtik III had to face the might of Persia at Pelusium; he was defeated and briefly escaped to Memphis, but ultimately was captured and then executed.
Persian domination
Achaemenid Egypt can be divided into three eras: the first period of Persian occupation when Egypt became a satrapy, followed by an interval of independence, and the second and final period of occupation.
The Persian king Cambyses
assumed the formal title of Pharaoh, called himself Mesuti-Re ("Re has
given birth"), and sacrificed to the Egyptian gods. He founded the Twenty-seventh dynasty. Egypt was then joined with Cyprus and Phoenicia in the sixth satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire.
Cambyses' successors Darius I the Great and Xerxes pursued a similar policy, visited the country, and warded off an Athenian attack. It is likely that Artaxerxes I and Darius II
visited the country as well, although it is not attested in our
sources, and did not prevent the Egyptians from feeling unhappy.
During the war of succession after the reign of Darius II, which broke out in 404, they revolted under Amyrtaeus and regained their independence. This sole ruler of the Twenty-eighth dynasty died in 399, and power went to the Twenty-ninth dynasty. The Thirtieth Dynasty was established in 380 BC and lasted until 343 BC. Nectanebo II was the last native king to rule Egypt.
Artaxerxes III (358–338 BC) reconquered the Nile valley for a brief period (343–332 BC). In 332 BC Mazaces handed over the country to Alexander the Great without a fight. The Achaemenid empire had ended, and for a while Egypt was a satrapy in Alexander's empire. Later the Ptolemies and then the Romans successively ruled the Nile valley.
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