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Home / Historical Periods / Ancient World / Ancient Egypt

Period

Ancient Egypt

c. 2,200–30 BCE

Ancient Egypt developed along the Nile and lasted for more than three thousand years under changing dynasties, kingdoms and foreign rulers. It is associated with pharaohs, pyramids, temples, tombs, scribes, priests, soldiers, farmers and the religious imagination of the afterlife. Its history moves from early kingship through the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms to Late, Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt.

Egypt matters because it was one of the longest-lasting and most visually recognisable ancient civilisations. Its power depended on the Nile, royal ideology, monumental building, religious authority and periods of military expansion or foreign rule. The tension between continuity and disruption gives Egyptian history its distinctive shape.

Ancient Egypt has a strong body of historical fiction, including Christian Jacq’s Ramses novels, Pauline Gedge’s Egyptian books, Wilbur Smith’s River God sequence, Michelle Moran’s Nefertiti and Cleopatra’s Daughter, and Mika Waltari’s The Egyptian. The setting supports palace intrigue, priestly power, dynastic rivalry, tomb-building, warfare, romance, slavery and stories of cultural survival under foreign rule. It is one of the most useful non-Roman ancient categories for a historical books site.

Related people for Ancient Egypt

Arsinoe IV of Egypt69 BCE–42 BCE Augustus64 BCE–14 Caesarion48 BCE–31 BCE Cicero107 BCE–44 BCE Cleopatra70 BCE–31 BCE Cleopatra Selene II41 BCE–6 BCE Clodiaborn 96 BCE Herod the Great75 BCE–5 BCE Julius Caesar101 BCE–45 BCE Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa64 BCE–13 BCE Mark Antony83–30 BCE Mithridates VI of Pontus135 BCE–64 BCE Octavia the Younger67 BCE–12 BCE Pompey106–48 BCE Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator63 BCE–48 BCE Publius Clodius Pulcherc. 90s BCE–53 BCE

Series

Series about Ancient Egypt (1 series)

Egyptian Royals Collection in Order

by Michelle Moran 3 books 4.2

Michelle Moran’s Egyptian Royals Collection follows three royal women whose lives are reshaped by dynastic rupture and imperial power. Nefertiti rises beside Akhenaten during the Amarna religious revolution; Nefertari struggles to overcome that discredited legacy at the court of Ramesses II; and Cleopatra Selene is carried to Rome…

Books

30 Best Novels About Ancient Egypt

Bestselling authors first, then star rating.

Non Fiction

5 Non-Fiction Books About Ancient Egypt

Histories, biographies and reference works are listed separately from the historical novels above.