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Late Period of Ancient Egypt

Final era of native (Saite) and Persian rule before Alexander, ending Egyptian pharaonic independence.

The Late Period of Ancient Egypt (Dynasties 26–31, c. 664–332 BCE) ended when Alexander the Great conquered Egypt from the Persian Achaemenid Empire (the last Persian-ruled 31st Dynasty) in 332 BCE without significant resistance, founding Alexandria and installing a Macedonian administration that became the Ptolemaic Kingdom.

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Further reading

• The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt Ian Shaw · 2000

  Covers the Saite and Persian Late Period of Egypt.

• The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt Toby Wilkinson · 2010

  Comprehensive Egypt survey with substantial coverage of Predynastic/Naqada period; complements Shaw by same era, different author

• Manetho W.G. Waddell (trans.) · 1940

  Primary source — Manetho's king-lists and dynastic framework are essential for understanding the transition from Predynastic to Early Dynastic; Loeb Classical Library vol. 350

Sources

• Late Period of Egypt — Wikipedia
• Thirty-first Dynasty of Egypt — Wikipedia (via WebSearch 2026-06-25)