Ancient Egypt was one of the oldest and longest-lasting civilizations in the world. By about 6000 BCE, people had settled along the Nile and begun organized farming. Around 3100 B.C., a king named Narmer united the lands of Upper and Lower Egypt into one country, and he also built a temple to the creator god Ptah at Memphis. Kings of Upper Egypt wore a tall white crown called the hedjet and kings of Lower Egypt a short red crown called the deshret, and the Narmer Palette is the first work of art to show a king wearing both. Egyptologists are not sure whether Narmer or a king called Menes was the first pharaoh. Menes was an honorific title, and many think Narmer and Menes were the same person.

The Old Kingdom, about 2613 to 2181 BCE, is known as the "Age of the Pyramids." Djoser's Step Pyramid complex at Saqqara was the earliest construction of its size in world history made fully of stone, and the surrounding complex included a temple, courtyards, shrines and living quarters for the priests. Imhotep designed it under Djoser; it rose 204 feet, the tallest structure of its time; a king named Sneferu needed three attempts to build the first smooth-sided pyramid. The three Giza pyramids came from three generations of kings: Khufu, his son Khafre and a later king, Menkaure. There are over seventy pyramids in Egypt, stretching down the Nile River Valley. After Menkaure's pyramid was finished around 2510 BCE, later pyramids got smaller and simpler.

The Old Kingdom ended as local governors gained power. A severe drought toward the end of the 6th Dynasty brought famine the government could not relieve, and the very long reign of Pepi II is cited as a cause, though many scholars see a transition, not a collapse. Later, the first standing army was created in the Middle Kingdom by the king Amenemhat I, about 1991 to 1962 BCE. The Hyksos, a West Semitic-speaking people, gained a foothold in Egypt about 1782 BCE. The Egyptians had not known the horse-drawn chariot until the Hyksos introduced it. Ahmose I drove the Hyksos out and began the New Kingdom, about 1570 BCE. Egyptian society was a strict hierarchy with the king at the top, and the vizier, a sort of prime minister, delegated responsibilities to other members of the court.

In the New Kingdom, Hatshepsut ruled for more than twenty years as a pharaoh, but Thutmose III later moved to erase her from the historical record, including removing her name from the list of kings. Akhenaten moved Egypt's capital from Thebes to Akhetaten, now called Amarna, and later rulers tore down the temples and monuments he built. Ramesses II ruled for 66 years. He led an army to Kadesh, was tricked by spies, and fought a battle both sides claimed to win. After years of talks he signed a peace treaty with the Hittites, the earliest peace accord whose text has survived. At Abu Simbel, four giant seated statues of Ramesses, each about 65 feet tall, guard the temple entrance, and he had a second, smaller temple built there for his queen, Nefertari.

Under the Kushite king Piye, who ruled 752 to 722 BCE, Egypt was unified again and its culture flourished. Alexander the Great took Egypt from the Persians in 332 BCE and was welcomed as a liberator; he founded Alexandria in 331 BCE; its lighthouse, the Pharos, was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Ptolemy I, a Macedonian, founded the Ptolemaic Dynasty, which ruled Egypt until the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BCE. Under the Ptolemies Alexandria became a center of learning: its library had room for up to 70,000 papyrus scrolls, though no one knows how many books it held. In 196 BCE a decree about Ptolemy V, who was 13 years old, was carved on the Rosetta Stone; a council of priests passed it.

Cleopatra VII came from the Greek Ptolemaic family that ruled from Alexandria, yet she learned Egyptian and, by one account, was fluent in it. She joined forces with two Roman leaders, Julius Caesar and later Mark Antony. Antony and Cleopatra were beaten by Octavian at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, and Cleopatra died in 30 BCE. Egypt then became a province of Rome and stayed under Roman rule for hundreds of years. As of November 2026, archaeologists have not found the mausoleum where Cleopatra and probably Antony died. Cleopatra VII was the last ruler of Egypt before Rome took it over.

Words to know

• dynasty: ruling family
• province: ruled territory
• vizier: prime minister
• liberator: freer
• Hyksos: foreign rulers