Ancient Egypt

3,250 BCE O.S. – 30 BCE O.S.71 items

africaancient world

The pyramids of Giza: Menkaure’s, Khafre’s and Khufu’s, with three queens’ pyramids in front, 2006. Photo: Ricardo Liberato. CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Three thousand years on the Nile

From the kings who first joined Upper and Lower Egypt, around 3100 BCE, to Cleopatra’s death in 30 BCE, when Egypt became a Roman province. The map follows the river from the Delta to the Second Cataract in Nubia, and out to Siwa, Canaan, Syria and Actium.

How it is built

The kingdoms and intermediate periods are bands, in the sequence Egyptologists use: Early Dynastic, Old, Middle and New Kingdoms with the three intermediate periods between them, then the Late and Ptolemaic periods.
Shorter bands overlap them for a reign or a foreign rule that tells its own story: Khufu’s pyramid, Hatshepsut, Amarna, Ramesses II, the Kushite and Persian kings, Cleopatra. Events that belong to one of those stories sit inside it.

Filter by tag to follow one thread: tombs, war, invasion, women, religion, writing.

That Egypt to which the Greeks sail is land deposited for the Egyptians, the river’s gift. — Herodotus, Histories 2.5, translated by A. D. Godley

Dates

Egyptian chronology before 664 BCE is reconstructed from king lists and reign lengths, and the schemes differ by decades for the early kingdoms. This timeline follows one: the chronology in Ian Shaw’s Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000). Dates before the New Kingdom carry an explicit range of years; from the New Kingdom on they are tighter. Every date is in the proleptic Julian calendar, the convention for ancient history, which matters for the few given to the day: the Canopus decree, the foundation of Edfu, the Rosetta decree, Actium and the fall of Alexandria.

Items

c. 3,200 BCE O.S. – c. 3,000 BCE O.S.
Protodynastic Period (Dynasty 0)
200 years
c. 3,050 BCE O.S.
Narmer unites Egypt
Hierakonpolis (Nekhen), where the palette was found
c. 3,000 BCE O.S. – c. 2,686 BCE O.S.
Early Dynastic Period
≈ 314 years
c. 2,950 BCE O.S.
Merneith, a queen among the kings
Umm el-Qa’ab royal cemetery, Abydos
c. 2,686 BCE O.S. – c. 2,160 BCE O.S.
Old Kingdom
≈ 526 years
c. 2,660 BCE O.S.
Djoser’s Step Pyramid
Step Pyramid of Djoser, Saqqara
c. 2,589 BCE O.S. – c. 2,566 BCE O.S.
Khufu builds the Great Pyramid
≈ 23 years · Great Pyramid of Khufu, Giza
c. 2,600 BCE O.S.
Sneferu’s pyramids at Dahshur
Bent and Red Pyramids, Dahshur
c. 2,570 BCE O.S.
The diary of Merer
Tura quarries across the Nile to Giza
c. 2,545 BCE O.S.
Khafre’s pyramid and the Great Sphinx
Great Sphinx, Giza
c. 2,360 BCE O.S.
Pyramid Texts in the tomb of Unas
Pyramid of Unas, Saqqara
c. 2,276 BCE O.S.
Pepi II writes to Harkhuf
Tomb of Harkhuf, Qubbet el-Hawa, Aswan
c. 2,160 BCE O.S. – c. 2,055 BCE O.S.
First Intermediate Period
≈ 105 years
c. 2,120 BCE O.S.
Ankhtifi feeds the south
el-Mo’alla, tomb of Ankhtifi
c. 2,055 BCE O.S. – c. 1,650 BCE O.S.
Middle Kingdom
≈ 405 years
c. 2,020 BCE O.S.
Mentuhotep II reunites Egypt
Thebes (Luxor)
c. 1,855 BCE O.S.
Senusret III’s border at Semna
Semna, Second Cataract (now under Lake Nubia)
c. 1,810 BCE O.S.
The Labyrinth at Hawara
Pyramid of Amenemhat III, Hawara
c. 1,777 BCE O.S.
Sobekneferu takes the throne
c. 1,650 BCE O.S. – 1,550 BCE O.S.
Second Intermediate Period
100 years
c. 1,555 BCE O.S.
Seqenenre Tao dies in battle
1,550 BCE O.S. – 1,069 BCE O.S.
New Kingdom
≈ 481 years
c. 1,535 BCE O.S.
Ahmose takes Avaris
Avaris (Tell el-Dab’a)
c. 1,495 BCE O.S.
The first tomb in the Valley of the Kings
Valley of the Kings, Thebes
1,473 BCE O.S. – 1,458 BCE O.S.
Reign of Hatshepsut
≈ 15 years
1,471 BCE O.S.
Hatshepsut’s expedition to Punt
Temple of Hatshepsut, Deir el-Bahari, where the voyage is carved
1,457 BCE O.S.
Battle of Megiddo
Megiddo
1,352 BCE O.S. – 1,336 BCE O.S.
Amarna Period
16 years
c. 1,348 BCE O.S.
Akhenaten founds Akhetaten
Akhetaten (Tell el-Amarna)
c. 1,345 BCE O.S.
The Amarna Letters
Akhetaten (Tell el-Amarna)
c. 1,345 BCE O.S.
The bust of Nefertiti
Akhetaten (Tell el-Amarna)
1,327 BCE O.S.
Tutankhamun buried in the Valley of the Kings
Tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62), Valley of the Kings
c. 1,285 BCE O.S.
Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak
Great Hypostyle Hall, Karnak
1,279 BCE O.S. – 1,213 BCE O.S.
Reign of Ramesses II
66 years
1,274 BCE O.S.
Battle of Kadesh
Kadesh (Tell Nebi Mend), Syria
1,259 BCE O.S.
Peace treaty with the Hittites
Pi-Ramesses (Qantir)
c. 1,255 BCE O.S.
Temples of Abu Simbel
Great Temple of Abu Simbel, as rebuilt in 1964–68
1,208 BCE O.S.
Merneptah Stele names Israel
Mortuary temple of Merneptah, western Thebes
1,177 BCE O.S.
Ramesses III repels the Sea Peoples
Nile Delta coast (the battle sites are not known)
1,156 BCE O.S.
The first recorded strike
Deir el-Medina, western Thebes
1,153 BCE O.S.
The harem conspiracy
c. 1,111 BCE O.S.
Tomb robbers on trial
West bank, Thebes
1,069 BCE O.S. – 664 BCE O.S.
Third Intermediate Period
≈ 405 years
c. 991 BCE O.S.
Psusennes I buried at Tanis
Royal tombs, Tanis (San el-Hagar)
c. 925 BCE O.S.
Shoshenq I raids Palestine
Bubastite Portal, Karnak
747 BCE O.S. – 656 BCE O.S.
Kushite rule (25th Dynasty)
≈ 91 years
c. 728 BCE O.S.
Piye conquers Egypt
Memphis (Mit Rahina)
664 BCE O.S. – 332 BCE O.S.
Late Period
332 years
c. 663 BCE O.S.
Assyrians sack Thebes
Karnak, Thebes
525 BCE O.S. – 404 BCE O.S.
First Persian Period (27th Dynasty)
≈ 121 years
525 BCE O.S.
Battle of Pelusium
Pelusium (Tell el-Farama)
c. 450 BCE O.S.
Herodotus travels up the Nile
Up the Nile from Memphis to Elephantine
c. 343 BCE O.S.
Nectanebo II, the last native pharaoh
Pelusium (Tell el-Farama)
332 BCE O.S. – 30 BCE O.S.
Ptolemaic Period
≈ 302 years
331 BCE O.S.
Alexander at the oracle of Siwa
Temple of the Oracle, Aghurmi, Siwa Oasis
331 BCE O.S.
Founding of Alexandria
Alexandria
c. 321 BCE O.S.
Alexander’s body brought to Memphis
Memphis (Mit Rahina)
c. 285 BCE O.S.
Library of Alexandria
Royal quarter and harbour, Alexandria
c. 280 BCE O.S.
Manetho writes a history of Egypt
c. 280 BCE O.S.
Pharos of Alexandria
Site of the Pharos, Qaitbay Citadel, Alexandria
c. 265 BCE O.S.
Temple of Isis at Philae
Temple of Isis, Philae, as rebuilt on Agilkia
c. 240 BCE O.S.
Eratosthenes measures the Earth
Alexandria to Syene (Aswan)
7 Mar 238 BCE O.S.
The Canopus decree adds a leap day
Canopus (Abu Qir)
23 Aug 237 BCE O.S.
Temple of Horus at Edfu begun
Temple of Horus, Edfu
27 Mar 196 BCE O.S.
The Rosetta Stone decree
Memphis (Mit Rahina)
51 BCE O.S. – Aug 30 BCE O.S.
Reign of Cleopatra VII
≈ 21 years
48 BCE O.S.
Caesar in Alexandria
Royal quarter and harbour, Alexandria
34 BCE O.S.
Donations of Alexandria
Alexandria
2 Sep 31 BCE O.S.
Battle of Actium
Off Cape Actium, mouth of the Ambracian Gulf
1 Aug 30 BCE O.S.
Octavian takes Alexandria
Alexandria
Aug 30 BCE O.S.
Death of Cleopatra
Alexandria