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Ancient Egytian Dynasties
Approximately 3200 to 3000 years B.C. was the Protodynastic (or “Late Predynastic”) Period, also called “Dynasty 0.” Historians believe this to be the time when upper and lower Egypt were unified into a single country; it is also the time when the Egyptian language began to be written down in the form of hieroglyphics. The first dynasty ran from about 3000 B.C. to 2900 B.C., beginning with the rule of Narmer or his successor Menes (some scholars believe these two may have been the same person, or that Menes was mythical like Romulus and Remus in ancient Rome). Menes is credited with founding Memphis, the area that now encompasses Giza.
There followed no fewer than 31 dynasties, organized into periods: Early Dynastic Period (1-2); the Old Kingdom (3-6), when the pyramids and Great Sphinx were built; the First Intermediate Period (7-10), a “dark” and disorganized period of famine during which many temples and monuments were destroyed; the Middle Kingdom (11-13), a time of wealth and prosperity; the Second Intermediate Period (14-17), a difficult time when the Hyksos (foreign invaders) invaded Egypt; the New Kingdom (18-20), the time of famous pharaohs like Ahmose I, Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Amenhotep III, Akhenaten (husband of Nefertiti and thought to be the first monotheist), Tutankhamen, and Rameses I through Rameses XI; the Third Intermediate Period (21-25), when the country was ruled by Nubians and then Assyrians; and the Late Period (26-31), wherein Egypt was ruled by Persians until Alexander the Great liberated the country from Persian rule around 330 B.C.
The years from 305 B.C. to about 30 B.C. were the Ptolemaic dynasty, encompassing the rules of Ptolemy I (305-282) through Ptolemy XII, Cleopatra I through Cleopatra the VII, and ending with Arsinoë IV, youngest daughter of Ptolemy XII. It was during this time (48 B.C.) that Julius Caesar arrived in Alexandria and allied himself with Cleopatra VII. After the Roman victory, Arsinoë was granted sanctuary at the temple of Artemis in Ephesus (in what is now Turkey), but a few years later Cleopatra had Marc Antony arrange for her to be executed there. Thus ended Egypt’s dynastic era.