• Earliest known hieroglyphic writing
• Foundation of the Egyptian state

• Creation of the capital city of Memphis
• Intensive contact with Palestine
• The first pyramid is built - the Step Pyramid at Saqqara

• The Great Pyramids are built at Dahshur and Giza
• Pyramids and elite tombs include the first extensive inscriptions

• Egypt splits into two smaller states, ruled from Memphis in the north and Thebes in the south

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• Mentuhotep reunites Egypt
• Amenemhat I founds a new royal residence near Memphis
• Egypt conquers Lower Nubia under Senwosret I and III
• Classical period of art and literature

• Hyksos kings seize power in the north
• Theban 17th dynasty in the south

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• Egyptian empire in Near East and Nubia
• Elaborate tombs of the Valley of Kings
• Rule of woman pharaoh Hatshepsut
• King Akhenaten attempts to introduce a monotheistic religion
• Brief reign of Tutankhamun
• Ramesses II rules for 67 years

• Disunity and Libyan settlement in Egypt
• Nubians conquer Egypt (late 8th century)

• Egypt conquered briefly by Assyrians
• Cultural revival under kings from Sais
• Persian conquest of Egypt (525 BC)
• Egypt independent again (404-343 BC)

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• Alexander the Great occupies Egypt
• Alexander's general, Ptolemy, becomes king and founds a dynasty
• The Rosetta Stone is carved (196 BC)
• Cleopatra VII reigns (51-30 BC)
• Egypt becomes a province of the Roman Empire (30 BC)

About this timeline

The dates are calculated from ancient lists, especially the Turin royal papyrus, and from various other sources. The margin of error rises from a decade or so in the 3rd Intermediate Period and New Kingdom to perhaps 150 years for the 1st Dynasty; dates for the 3rd millennium are given for whole dynasties and are rounded, as are numerous later dates. From the 12th Dynasty on, possible sequences of dates can be calculated from astronomical evidence; currently accepted sequences are used here. Dates from 664 BCE on are precise to within a year.

About the author

The timeline was compiled by John Baines, Professor of Egyptology, University of Oxford. He is co-author with Jaromir Malek of Cultural Atlas of Ancient Egypt (2nd edition, 2000) and author of Fecundity figures: Egyptian personification and the iconology of a genre (reprinted 2001)