The history of Egypt

7 great eras divided into 26 periods — from prehistory to the present day.

About these estimated dates

Every ancient date is an estimate. Scholarly chronologies differ by decades, and by more the further back you go, which is why each figure carries a tilde. When a period is published we name the chronology its dates come from.

The timeline, drawn to one scale

Prehistory in the Nile Valley~700000 – ~6000 BCE
off the scale
Ancient Egypt~6000 – ~332 BCE
5,668 years
Greco-Roman Egypt~332 BCE – ~641 CE
973 years
Early and Medieval Islamic Egypt~641 – ~1517 CE
876 years
Ottoman Egypt and the French Expedition~1517 – ~1805 CE
288 years
Modern Egypt~1805 – ~1952 CE
147 years
The Republic~1952 – ~2026 CE
74 years

Why does ancient Egypt fill most of the bar?

The band is drawn to a single scale from 6000 BCE to today, so each period's width is its real length. What came before spans some 694,000 years; at the same scale it would take 99% of the width and leave the whole of pharaonic Egypt a few pixels wide. It sits outside the scale, and the break is stated rather than hidden.

IAsk

Ask Sawah

Ask about Egypt's history and culture. Answers are built from Sawah's published articles and their sources.

Before you start

This is an automated assistant, not a historian. It can be wrong, and its answers are not a scholarly reference. Always check the sources attached to each article.

IITimeline

Prehistory in the Nile Valley

~700000 – ~6000 BCE1 period

Prehistory and the Stone Age~700000 – ~6000 BCEOutside the dynasty numbering

Ancient Egypt

~6000 – ~332 BCE9 periods

The Predynastic Period~6000 – ~3100 BCEOutside the dynasty numbering The Early Dynastic Period~3100 – ~2686 BCEDynasties 1–2 The Old Kingdom~2686 – ~2181 BCEDynasties 3–6 The First Intermediate Period~2181 – ~2055 BCEDynasties 7–11 The Middle Kingdom~2055 – ~1650 BCEDynasties 11–12 The Second Intermediate Period~1650 – ~1550 BCEDynasties 13–17 The New Kingdom~1550 – ~1069 BCEDynasties 18–20 The Third Intermediate Period~1069 – ~664 BCEDynasties 21–25 The Late Period~664 – ~332 BCEDynasties 26–31

Greco-Roman Egypt

~332 BCE – ~641 CE4 periods

The Macedonian Conquest~332 – ~305 BCEOutside the dynasty numbering The Ptolemaic Period~305 – ~30 BCEOutside the dynasty numbering The Roman Period~30 BCE – ~395 CEOutside the dynasty numbering The Coptic and Byzantine Period~395 – ~641 CEOutside the dynasty numbering

Early and Medieval Islamic Egypt

~641 – ~1517 CE6 periods

The Arab Conquest and the Governors~641 – ~868 CEOutside the dynasty numbering The Tulunid Dynasty~868 – ~905 CEOutside the dynasty numbering The Ikhshidid Dynasty~935 – ~969 CEOutside the dynasty numbering The Fatimid Caliphate~969 – ~1171 CEOutside the dynasty numbering The Ayyubid Dynasty~1171 – ~1250 CEOutside the dynasty numbering The Mamluk Sultanate~1250 – ~1517 CEOutside the dynasty numbering

Ottoman Egypt and the French Expedition

~1517 – ~1805 CE2 periods

The Ottoman Period~1517 – ~1798 CEOutside the dynasty numbering The French Expedition~1798 – ~1801 CEOutside the dynasty numbering

Modern Egypt

~1805 – ~1952 CE3 periods

The Muhammad Ali Dynasty~1805 – ~1882 CEOutside the dynasty numbering British Occupation and the 1919 Revolution~1882 – ~1922 CEOutside the dynasty numbering The Kingdom of Egypt~1922 – ~1952 CEOutside the dynasty numbering

The Republic

~1952 – ~2026 CE1 period

From 1952 to today~1952 – ~2026 CEOutside the dynasty numbering

The eleventh dynasty appears in two periods: it began as a local Theban line during the First Intermediate Period and ended as the reunifier of the country at the start of the Middle Kingdom. That is a real overlap in the chronology, not an error in the table. Dynasty numbering stops at the thirty-first, so everything after it is outside the system rather than missing from it.