ANCIENT EGYPT (all dates BC, and before 530 are approximate)
| 6000 | Egypt first becomes habitable |
| 3200 | Menes, king of Upper Egypt, conquers Lower Egypt, beginning Dynasty I |
| 2700-2200 | Old Kingdom, Dynasties III-VI: capital at Memphis; pyramids built |
| 2200-2050 | First Intermediate Period (Dynasties VII-XI); capital at Heracleopolis (Dynasties IX and X); at Thebes (X) |
| 2050-1800 | Middle Kingdom: capital at Thebes (Dynasties XI and XII) |
| 1800-1570 | Second Intermediate Period (Dynasties XIII-XVII) |
| 1730-1570 | Rule of the Hyksos: probable time of Joseph (Dynasties XV and XVI) capital at Avaris, in the east Delta (near the land of Goshen); chariots introduced |
| 1570-1090 | New Kingdom (Egyptian Empire): Dynasties XVIII-XX: capital at Thebes |
| 1370-1355 | Amarna Revolution: Amenhotep IV promotes religion of Amon (he takes name Akhenaton); outlaws worship of other gods; beginning of use of term Pharaoh; his queen, Nefertiti, has great influence |
| c 1352 | Tutankhamon (“King Tut”) becomes Pharaoh; priests undo most of Akhenaton’s religious reforms |
| 1290-1224 | Rule of Ramses II, probable Pharaoh of the Oppression (of the Hebrew people) |
| 1090-945 | Post-Empire Period (Dynasty XXI) |
| 945-745 | Libyan Dynasty (XXII) |
| 745-663 | Nubian Period (Dynasties XXIII-XXV) |
| 680 | Egypt conquered by Assyria |
| 655-610 | Egypt independent again |
| 663-525 | Saite Period |
| 530-525 | Egypt conquered by Persians |
| 525-332 | Persian Period (Dynasties XXVII-XXX [or to XXXI]); much damage to antiquities |
| 332-331 | Egypt conquered by Alexander the Great: Alexandria founded; antiquities repaired |
| 306 | After wars of the Diadochi (Alexander’'s generals, who succeeded him), Egypt controlled by Ptolemy I--Alexandria becomes greatest city in the world |
| 306-30 | Hellenistic Period--Rule of the Ptolemies (Dynasty XXXI [or XXXII]) |
| 280 | The priest Manetho writes the Aegyptiaca, a collection of three books about the history of Ancient Egypt, from which we get the numbering of the Dynasties (I-XXX) |
| 48 | Caesar visits Cleopatra; she has a son by him |
| 31 | Battle of Actium: Antony and Cleopatra defeated by Caesar Octavian |
| 30 | Antony and Cleopatra commit suicide; Egypt becomes a Roman province |
Medieval and Modern Egypt (all dates AD)
| 330 | Constantinople founded; Egyptian grain redirected there |
| IV Century | Egypt becomes a Christian nation; damage done to ancient temples |
| 616 | Egypt conquered by Persians |
| 629 | Egypt retaken by Romans |
| 640-646 | Egypt conquered by Muslims |
| 969-1171 | Fatimids, Shi'ites whose leaders claimed decent from Fatima, establish themselves in Egypt; they found Cairo as their capital |
| 1250-1798 | Mamluks take over Egypt; rule as Sultans or Beys |
| 1517 | Turks conquer Egypt |
| 1798 | Napoleon conquers Egypt |
| 1802-3 | British force Napoleon out; Turks return |
| 1805-1848 | Mohamed Ali, Turkish viceroy |
| 1820 | Mohamed Ali conquers Nubia |
| 1839-42 | Expedition up the Nile penetrates the Sudd, explores upper Nile |
| 1854-63 | Said Pasha viceroy |
| 1859-69 | Suez Canal built |
| 1863-79 | Ismail Pasha viceroy |
| 1875 | Ismail attempts to conquer Ethiopia, but fails; to recoup his financial losses, he sells his (44%) share in Suez Canal to the British |
| 1876 | Egyptian credit collapses; finances fall to European control |
| 1881-2 | Egyptians revolt against foreign domination; British “temporarily” take over Egyptian government “to restore order,” although Egypt remains nominally a Turkish province; French are furious |
| 1880s | Scramble for Africa; whole continent partitioned among European powers (Great Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, and King Leopold of Belgium) |
| 1896-98 | British under Kitchener conquer Sudan, which becomes an “Anglo-Egyptian Condominium” |
| 1898-1902 | Dam built at Aswan; ends annual flooding of the Nile |
| 1914 | Outbreak of World War I; British proclaim protectorate over Egypt; Turkish suzerainty terminated |
| 1936 | Treaty with Britain strengthens Egyptian autonomy |
| 1943 | Battle of El Alamein; German drive toward Egypt halted |
| 1947 | British quit Egypt, except for Suez Canal |
| 1948 | Israel independent; first Arab-Israeli war; Egypt occupies Gaza |
| 1952 | Army revolt overthrows King Farouk; Gamal Abdel Nasser becomes military dictator; for the first time in almost 2500 years, Egypt is ruled by an Egyptian. |
| 1956 | Suez crisis: Egypt and USA fall out over American support of Israel; US cuts off aid; Egypt seizes Suez Canal; French and British stockholders demand intervention; war Egypt vs. Britain, France, and Israel; at conclusion of war, UN peacekeepers patrol border between Israel and Egypt |
| 1958 | Temporary merger of Egypt and Syria to form United Arab Republic; Syria quits in 1961, but Egypt retains name U.A.R.; Egypt attempts to form new United Arab Republic with Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, but nothing comes of this. |
| 1960 | Aswan high dam begun |
| 1967 | Egypt demands removal of UN peacekeepers, then blockades Gulf of Aqaba against Israel; Six Day War; Israel occupies Gaza and Sinai peninsula; Suez Canal closed |
| 1971 | Aswan high dam completed |
| 1973 | “Yom Kippur War”; Israel controls both banks of Suez Canal |
| 1975 | Suez Canal reopened. |
| 1979 | Peace between Egypt and Israel; Israel partially evacuates Sinai |
| 1982 | Israel completely evacuates Sinai |
Outline of the History of Exploration of the Nile (all dates AD)
| c 60 | Two Roman centurions sent to explore upper Nile; they report that Nubia (the area above; that is, south of, the 2nd cataract) is not worth conquering, and that the Nile flows through a large impenetrable swamp (the Sudd) |
| c 200 | Claudius Ptolemy’s map shows Nile beginning in streams rising in the “Mountains of the Moon,” collecting in two great lakes, before flowing north |
| c 1200 | Arabs have notion that the source of the Nile is the Niger (= “Nile of the Blacks”) |
| 1856 | Burton and Speke leave Zanzibar for Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika. Burton believes Lake Tanganyika (which empties into a river then called Lualaba, heading north) is source of the Nile; Speke doubts it, becuase he believes its altitude is too low; on their return, while Burton is convalescing, Speke visits Lake Victoria, which he names and proclaims it the source of the Nile; when they return to Zanzibar, Burton and Speke are not talking to each other. |
| 1860-2 | Speke and Grant set out to explore Lake Victoria; meet the Bakers |
| 1862-4 | Baker and his wife travel up the Nile; meet Speke; discover Lake Albert; observe the Victoria Nile flows into Lake Albert; the Albert Nile=White Nile flows out, but they do not prove there is no other inlet than the Victoria Nile |
| 1871-3 | Stanley finds Dr Livingstone; together they circumnavigate Lake Tanganyika, proving it has no outlet other than the Lualaba at the north end. |
| 1875-8 | Stanley circumnavigates Lake Victoria; proves it is the source of the Nile; then launches his boat on the Lualaba, proves it is the source of the Congo (and, hence, not the source of the Nile) by navigating the Congo to the Atlantic. |