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The Story of

Egypt

6500 BCE – 2023

Country in Northeast Africa and Southwest Asia

  1. Predynastic Period of Egypt

    65th century BCE – 3100 BCE

    Prehistoric Egypt and Predynastic Egypt was the period of time starting at the first human occupation of the region and ending at the First Dynasty of Egypt around 3100 BC. At the end of prehistory, "Predynastic Egypt" is traditionally defined as the period from the final part of the Neolithic period beginning c. 6210 BC to the end of the Naqada III period c. 3000 BC. The dates of the Predynastic period were first defined before widespread archaeological excavation of Egypt took place, and recent finds indicating a gradual Predynastic development have led to controversy over when exactly…

  2. Early Dynastic Period of Egypt

    3100 BCE – 2686 BCE

    The Early Dynastic Period, also known as Archaic Period or the Thinite Period (from Thinis, the hometown of its rulers), is the era of ancient Egypt that immediately follows the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt in c. 3150 BC. It is generally taken to include the First Dynasty and the Second Dynasty, lasting from the end of the archaeological culture of Naqada III until c. 2686 BC, or the beginning of the Old Kingdom. With the First Dynasty, the Egyptian capital moved from Thinis to Memphis, with the unified land being ruled by an Egyptian god-king.

  3. Battle of the Delta

    1178 BCE

    The Battle of the Delta was a sea battle between Egypt and the Sea Peoples, circa 1175 BC, when the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses III repelled a major sea invasion. The conflict occurred on the shores of the eastern Nile Delta and on the border of the Egyptian Empire in Syria, although precise locations of the battles are unknown.

  4. Battle of Pelusium

    May 525 BCE

    The Battle of Pelusium was the first major battle between the Achaemenid Empire and Egypt. This decisive battle transferred the throne of the Pharaohs to Cambyses II of Persia, marking the beginning of the Achaemenid Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt.

  5. Battle of Pelusium

    343 BCE

    The Battle of Pelusium (373 BC) or the Battle of Mendes took place after the Persian king Artaxerxes II launched an attack on Egypt with the aim of restoring Egypt to Persian rule. The campaign failed, and ended with the defeat of the Persians and their Greek mercenaries.

  6. Battle of Raphia

    22 June 217 BCE

    The Battle of Raphia was fought on 22 June 217 BC near modern Rafah between the forces of Ptolemy IV Philopator, king and pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt and Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid Empire during the Syrian Wars. It was one of the largest battles of the Hellenistic kingdoms and of the ancient world, and determined the sovereignty of Coele-Syria.

  7. Battle of the Nile

    47 BCE

    The Battle of the Nile in early 47 BC saw the combined Roman–Egyptian armies of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra VII defeat those of the rival Queen Arsinoe IV and King Ptolemy XIII and secure the throne of Egypt.

  8. Siege of Alexandria

    47 BCE

    The siege of Alexandria was a series of skirmishes and battles occurring between the forces of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra VII, Arsinoe IV, and Ptolemy XIII, between 48 and 47 BC. During this time Caesar was engaged in a civil war against remaining Republican forces. The siege was lifted by relief forces arriving from Syria.

  9. Final War of the Roman Republic

    32 BCE – 30 BCE

    The War of Actium or Actian War (32–30 BC) was the last civil war of the Roman Republic, fought between Mark Antony (assisted by Cleopatra and by extension Ptolemaic Egypt) and Octavian. In 32 BC, Octavian convinced the Roman Senate to declare war on the Egyptian queen Cleopatra.

  10. Battle of Heliopolis

    6 July 640

    The Battle of Heliopolis or Ayn Shams was a decisive battle in 640 between Arab Muslim armies and Byzantine Empire forces for the control of Egypt. Though there were several major skirmishes after this battle, it effectively decided the fate of the Byzantine rule in Egypt, and opened the door for the Muslim conquest of the Roman Exarchate of Africa.

  11. Siege of Alexandria

    March 641 – September 641

    Forces of the Rashidun Caliphate seized the major Mediterranean port of Alexandria from the Eastern Roman Empire in the middle of the 7th century AD. Alexandria had been the capital of the Byzantine province of Egypt. This ended Eastern Roman maritime control and economic dominance of the Eastern Mediterranean and thus continued to shift geopolitical power further in favor of the Rashidun Caliphate.

  12. Siege of Ascalon

    1153

    The siege of Ascalon took place from 25 January to 22 August 1153, in the time period between the Second and Third Crusades, and resulted in the capture of the Fatimid Egyptian fortress by the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Ascalon was an important castle that was used by the Fatimids to launch raids into the Crusader kingdom's territory, and by 1153 it was the last coastal city in Palestine that was not controlled by the Crusaders.

  13. Battle of al-Babein

    18 March 1167

    The Battle of al-Babein took place on March 18, 1167, during the third Crusader invasion of Egypt. King Amalric I of Jerusalem, and a Zengid army under Shirkuh, both hoped to take the control of Egypt over from the Fatimid Caliphate.

  14. Siege of Damietta

    May 1218 – 5 November 1219

    The siege of Damietta of 1218–1219 was part of the Fifth Crusade in which the Crusaders attacked the Egyptian port city of Damietta. The city was besieged in 1218 and taken by the Crusaders in 1219.

  15. Siege of Damietta

    5 June 1249 – 6 June 1249

    The siege of Damietta occurred in 1249 and was part of the Seventh Crusade. Louis IX of France landed at Damietta in 1249.

  16. Battle of Mansurah

    8 February 1250 – 11 February 1250

    The Battle of Mansurah was fought from 8 to 11 February 1250, between crusaders led by King Louis IX of France and Ayyubid forces led by Vizier Fakhr al-Din ibn al-Shaykh, Qutuz and Baybars . It was fought in present-day Mansoura, Egypt.

  17. Battle of Fariskur

    6 April 1250

    The Battle of Fariskur was the last major battle of the Seventh Crusade. The battle was fought on 6 April 1250, between the Crusaders led by King Louis IX of France (later Saint Louis) and Egyptian forces led by Turanshah of the Ayyubid dynasty.

  18. Ottoman–Mamluk War of 1516–17

    1516 – 22 January 1517

    The Ottoman–Mamluk War of 1516–1517 was the second major conflict between the Egypt-based Mamluk Sultanate and the Ottoman Empire, which led to the Fall of the Mamluk Sultanate and the incorporation of the Levant, Egypt, and the Hejaz as provinces of the Ottoman Empire. The war transformed the Ottoman Empire from a realm at the margins of the Islamic world, mainly located in Anatolia and the Balkans, to a huge empire encompassing much of the traditional lands of Islam, including the cities of Mecca, Cairo, Damascus, and Aleppo.

  19. Battle of Ridaniya

    22 January 1517

    The Battle of Ridaniya or Battle of Ridanieh (Arabic: معركة الريدانية; Turkish: Ridaniye Muharebesi) was fought on January 22, 1517, in Egypt. The Ottoman forces of Selim I defeated the Mamluk forces under Al-Ashraf Tuman bay II. The Turks marched into Cairo, and the severed head of Tuman bay II, Egypt’s last Mamluk Sultan, was hung over an entrance gate in the Al Ghourieh quarter of Cairo.

  20. French invasion of Egypt and Syria

    1 July 1798 – 2 September 1801

    The French invasion of Egypt and Syria (1798–1801) was a military expedition to Ottoman-held Egypt and Syria led by Napoleon Bonaparte during the French Revolutionary Wars. The campaign aimed to undermine British trade routes, expand French influence, and establish a scientific and administrative presence in Egypt.