This revised Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt has been designed to increase historical information about the civilization of the Nile Valley from the predynastic period until the annexation of Egypt by the Romans around 30 B.C.E. During the 1,000 years following the collapse of the Ramessids and the New Kingdom in 1070 B.C.E. and the Roman occupation of the Nile Valley, Egypt experienced the invasion of several foreign armies and the clash of new people and ideas. The Libyans, Nubians, Assyrians, and Persians ruled the nation, and Alexander the Great bequeathed the lands and a new capital, Alexandria, to the Greeks, who remained in power during the Ptolemaic Period (304–30 B.C.E.).

Individuals from these cultures are included in this book, as well as the military, social, and religious aspects of their presence on the Nile. Each culture arrived in Egypt seeking its own purpose, eventually losing its grip on the land. The native Egyptians, meanwhile, maintained their own cultural imperatives and survived the changes in their world. Their temples, courts, monuments, and deities continued to serve the land as foreigners arrived and disappeared. The Chronology will provide an overview of these historical eras.