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What is the History of Ancient Egypt?
        HISTORY OF EGYPT
        The history of Egypt, as drawn from other sources than the Scriptures, is confused, like the chronology upon which it depends for clearness and order. Of the thirty dynasties from Menes to the second Persian conquest, b.c. 340, some of the most noted earlier kings were Thothmes I. and III., Amenoph II. and III., Scthos or Sesostris, and Rameses II. and III. These built many of the vast and grand temples and palaces at Karnak and Luxor, and carried their conquests to Assyria and Ethiopia. Among the later rulers were Shishak or Sheshonk, Pharaoh-necho, Pharaoh-hophra, and Psammetichus. Its most populous cities were Thebes. Latopolis, Apollinopolis, Syene, Memphis, Heraclopolis, Arsinoe, Heliopolis, Bubastis, Sais, Busiris, Tanis, and Pelusium. The statements of some Greek and Roman writers that Egypt in its prosperity had 7,000,000 population and 20,000 cities are believed to be greatly exaggerated. This would require it to have sustained an average population to the square mile, exclusive of the desert, twice as great as the most densely-peopled lands of modern times. Egypt was conquered by Cambyses the Persian about b.c. 525; regained its independence under Amyrteus, of the twenty-eighth dynasty of native kings; was again conquered by the Persians under Darius Ochus, b.c. 340, by Alexander the Great, b.c. 332, when he founded Alexandria. After Alexander's death it formed a kingdom under the Grecian and Macedonian Ptolemies, the Greeks becoming the dominant class (the last of the Ptolemies reigned jointly with his sister and wife, the famous Cleopatra). After the battle of Actium, b.c. 30, Egypt became a Roman province. Under the Roman rule Alexandria continued to be the great mart of trade and the centre of learning and philosophy; for three centuries it was under Roman rule, and during that period Egypt was accounted the granary of Rome. On the transfer of the seat of empire to Constantinople, the Christians, who had been severely persecuted under its Roman rulers, gained the sway over the pagans, and for three centuries theological controversies raged with great fierceness. The Arab conquest under Caliph Omar came a.d. 640, followed by the Fatimite dynasty, a.d. 970, when Cairo was founded and made the capital. Saladin, the noted prime minister of the last of the Fatimites, assumed the sovereignty, with the title of sultan, a.d. 1170, and was a vigorous opposer of the Crusaders. The government was overturned by the Mamelukes about a.d. 1250; again conquered by Selim I., a.d. 1517; by Napoleon in 1798; by the combined forces of the English and the Turks in 1801; and, soon after, Mehemet Ali, an Albanian adventurer, was made pasha, being nominally a vassal of Turkey, but his power was nearly absolute. Under the reign of his grandson, the present khedive or viceroy (since 1863), Egypt has been restored to some extent from its low condition, schools and colleges have been founded, commerce and manufactures encouraged, numerous reforms introduced, the Suez Canal completed and opened to the commerce of the world, railways and telegraphs have been constructed; but the condition of the people has not been improved, and poverty and misery prevail. The treasury of the khedive is nearly bankrupt. Egypt is "the old house of bondage under new masters."


Bibliography Information
Schaff, Philip, Dr. "Biblical Definition for 'history of ancient egypt' in Schaffs Bible Dictionary".
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