The Late Period
After the fall of the New Kingdom, Egypt fell apart. Tanis has been the capital of Egypt for a while with kings like
Psoesenes. They had a beautiful tomb. Unfortunately, this was discovered during the second World War, so almost
nobody knows about this. It was a tomb for a whole family of pharaohs and everywhere it was gold and silver. Silver
was more precious in Egypt because gold was very common. After this, Egypt was conquered by Libia. In the 25th
dynasty Egypt got conquered by Ethiopian kings. Round 670 B.C. Egypt got destroyed by the Assyrians. They
burned every temple down and killed the holy bull. The 26th dynasty was the so-called Saitian dynasty. This was
a very artistic period. The pharaohs reigned from Sais and all wanted to return to the glory of the Middle Kingdom.
That’s why they had very beautiful artifacts. The most common thing from this period was a blue hippopotamus.
But this didn't work out either. In 525 B.C. Egypt got conquered by Persia. After this, Egypt got conquered again
after the 31st dynasty by Alexander the Great. The Greek were very good rulers. Alexander committed to build a
city called Alexandria, which still exacts. He had a friend called Ptolemy. Ptolemy had to rule Egypt for the Greeks.
A lot of Ptolemys followed. The art in this period wasn't beautiful at all. The gods were still worshipped but they
looked fat and ugly in the temple scenes. The Ptolemys let themselves got worshipped as gods, just like the
pharaohs. In 30 B.C. Cleopatra committed suicide and Egypt got conquered by the Romans. From this period the
Egyptian culture got downhill. But the Egyptian culture lives on today. Not only in the comics and movies, but in
the language of the Copts (Egyptian Christs) and when an Egyptian needs special help, he doesn't only ask Allah
to help him, he also prays to Thutmoses and Ramsess II.
Although Egypt's golden empire is gone, we can still feel like a part of its history by being surrounded by marvelous monuments, exquisite temples and all the wonderful things ancient Egyptians left us as part of their legacy.
