Historical Periods of Ancient Egypt

The historical periods of ancient Egypt spans the period from the early predynastic settlements of the north Nile Valley to the Roman conquest in 30 BC. The Pharaonic Period is dated from some 3150 BC, when Lower and Upper Egypt became a unified state, until the country drop under Greek govern in 332 BC. Egypt's history is split into several different periods according to the dynasty of the governing of each pharaoh. The dating of events is still a field of research. The conservative dates are not put up by any reliable good date for a couple of about three millennia. The following is the list according to conventional Egyptian chronology.

• Predynastic Period
• Early Dynastic Period (Dynasties 1- 2)
• Old Kingdom (Dynasties 3-6)
• First Intermediate Period (Dynasties 7-11)
• Middle Kingdom (Dynasties 12-13)
• Second Intermediate Period (Dynasties 14-17)
• New Kingdom (Dynasties 18-20)
• Third Intermediate Period (Dynasties 21-25)
• Late Period (Dynasties 26-31)

Late Period

Just fter 671 BC on, Memphis and the Delta area got the target of many attacks from the Assyrians, who expelled the Nubians and handed over power to node kings of the Dynasty 26. Psamtik I was the first to be established as the king of the full 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 taking Egypt successfully and peacefully from 610-526 BC, holding 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 present 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 broken into 3 eras: the first period of Persian military control when Egypt became a satrapy, followed by an separation of independency, and the second and last 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 established the dynasty 27. Egypt was then joined with Cyprus and Phoenicia in the sixth satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire. Cambyses' heirs Darius I the Great and Xerxes followed a similar policy, visited the country, and warded off an Athenian approach. 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 sequence after the reign of Darius II, which broke out in 404, they revolted under Amyrtaeus and found their independence. This unique ruler of the dynasty 28 died in 399, and power went to the Twenty-ninth dynasty. The Thirtieth Dynasty was showed 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 short period (343–332 BC). In 332 BC Mazaces passed 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.

Ptolemaic dynasty:

About 332 BC Alexander III of Macedon captured Egypt with little underground from the Persians. He was received by the Egyptians as a savior. He visited Memphis, and got on a pilgrimage to the oracle of Amun at the Oasis of Siwa. The oracle held him to be the son of Amun. He conciliated the Egyptians by the value which he showed for their faith, but he named Greeks to virtually all the senior puts up in the country, and founded a new Greek city, Alexandria, to be the new capital. The wealthiness of Egypt could now be harnessed for Alexander's conquest of the stay of the Persian Empire. Early in 331 BC he was ready to depart, and led his forces out to Phoenicia. He left Cleomenes as the ruling nomarch to control Egypt in his absence. Alexander never returned to Egypt. Following Alexander's dying in Babylon in 323 BC, a sequence crisis erupted among his generals. Initially, Perdiccas governed the empire as strong for Alexander's half brother Arrhidaeus, who became Philip III of Macedon, and then as strong for both Philip III and Alexander's baby son Alexander IV of Macedon, who had not been born at the time of his father's death. Perdiccas appointed Ptolemy, one of Alexander's best companions, to be satrap of Egypt. Ptolemy governed Egypt from 323 BC, nominally in the name of the corporate kings Philip III and Alexander IV. However, as Alexander the Great's empire disintegrated, Ptolemy soon established himself as ruler in his own right. Ptolemy successfully held Egypt against an intrusion by Perdiccas in 321 BC, and consolidated his position in Egypt and the surrounding areas during the Wars of the Diadochi (322 BC-301 BC). In 305 BC, Ptolemy took the title of King. As Ptolemy I Soter (Saviour), he established the Ptolemaic dynasty that was to rule Egypt for about 300 years.

The later Ptolemies assumed Egyptian customs by marrying their siblings, had themselves portrayed on public memorials in Egyptian style and dress, and participated in Egyptian spiritual life. Hellenistic culture expanded in Egypt well after the Muslim conquest. The Ptolemies had to fight native rebellions and were taken in foreign and civil warfares that led to the disdain of the kingdom and its appropriation by Rome.

Third Intermediate Period

Afterward the death of Ramses XI, his heir Smendes governed from the city of Tanis in the north, while the High Priests of Amun at Thebes had good rule of the southern of the country, whilst set nominally recognizing Smendes as king. In fact, this division was less important than it seems, since both priests and pharaohs came from the same family. Piankh, assumed hold of Upper Egypt, ruling from Thebes, with the north set of his control close at Al-Hibah. (The High Priest Herihor had passed before Ramses XI, but also was an all-but-independent swayer in the latter days of the king's rule.) The country was once once again split into 2 parts with the priests in Thebes and the Pharaohs at Tanis. Their rule seems to be without any other distinction, and they were replaced without any looking struggle by the Libyan kings of the Twenty-Second Dynasty. Egypt has long had bonds with Libya, and the first king of the new dynasty, Shoshenq I, was a Meshwesh Libyan, who attended as the commanding officer of the armies below the last ruler of the Twenty-First Dynasty, Psusennes II. He unified the country, putting hold of the Amun clergy under his own son as the High Priest of Amun, a post that was antecedently a hereditary appointment. The scant and irregular nature of the written shows from this period indicate that it was mobile. There appear to have been many subversive groups, which finally led to the creation of the Twenty-Third Dynasty, which ran contemporary with the latter part of the Twenty-Second Dynasty. After the detachment of Egypt from Nubia at the end of the New Kingdom, a native dynasty took control of Nubia. Below king Piye, the Nubian founder of Twenty-Fifth Dynasty, the Nubians forced north in an effort to crush his Libyan opponents ruling in the Delta. He managed to attain power as far as Memphis. His opposite Tefnakhte finally submitted to him, but he was provided to remain in power in Lower Egypt and founded the passing Twenty-Fourth Dynasty at Sais.

Egypt was reunified by the Twenty-Second Dynasty founded by Shoshenq I around 945 BC, who derived from Meshwesh immigrants, primitively from Ancient Libya. This brought constancy to the country for well over a century. After the rule of Osorkon II the country had again splintered into two lands 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. The Nubian kingdom to the south took full reward of this division and political imbalance. Piye engaged a campaign from Nubia and defeated the combined might of different native-Egyptian swayer such as Peftjaubast, Osorkon IV of Tanis, and Tefnakht of Sais. Piye established the Nubian Twenty-Fifth Dynasty and appointed the defeated swayer to be his provincial governors. He was followed first by his brother, Shabaka, and then by his 2 sons Shebitku and Taharqa.

The international prestige of Egypt rejected well by this time. The country's international allies had fallen under the sphere of shape of Assyria and from about 700 BC the question became when, not if, there would be war between the 2 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 finally Thebes was occupied and Memphis sacked.