Ancient Egypt began as a collection of independent city-states along the Nile

The essential facts to know about ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt spanned three millennia—more than 10 times the history of the US—but disappeared from the world's consciousness until the 18th century when it was rediscovered by Napoleon's army. Take a trip through the dynastic periods in this three-minute video.

A timeline of key events during each period of Egyptian history

This timeline shows the dates, periods, dynasties, and significant events in the history and art of ancient Egypt from the Predynastic Period (before 3100 BCE) to the end of the Roman Period (395 CE).

Explore the major archaeological sites of Egypt's 3,000-year history.

Explore the roughly 190 Egyptian pharaohs across 31 dynasties.

Ancient Egypt for Kids

Ancient Egypt lasted a very long time! This video breaks down the timeline and geography of their civilization, daily life, and education in Egypt (including bringing the "Book of the Dead" to life).

The ancient Egyptians built prototypes of the modern Suez Canal

The idea to facilitate trade between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea and connect the Eurasian continent was apparent even to pharaohs in the second millennium BCE. Though no physical traces remain, contemporary accounts attest to early, shorter versions of the canal, including from Herodotus.

Egyptians called the Nile River the 'Ar,' meaning 'black'

The over 4,000-mile river would turn dark during its warm-season flooding as sediments flowed downriver. This nutrient soil, which would settle on the riverbank, was essential for farming in Egypt.

Inside Saqqara, ancient Egypt's sprawling necropolis outside Memphis

Located 20 miles south of modern-day Cairo, the 4-square-mile site contains the oldest known stone complex in the world, the venue for royal tombs and monuments for one of the earliest Egyptian capitals, Memphis.

Egypt's pantheon is the result of a thousand years of myths

Their pantheon consisted of nearly 2,000 divine beings which evolved over time, led by the broadly worshipped sun god Ra. Many of the myths surrounding each god changed dramatically or even intertwined with others as cult followings grew popular or shifted from city to city.

The Greek city of Alexandria in Egypt helped form the template for modern cities by considering function, commerce, culture, and politics.

Explore the Valley of the Kings

The ruins of ancient Egypt are so widely dispersed throughout the Nile River Valley it can be hard to keep track of everything. The Theban mapping project from the American Research Center in Egypt provides beautiful interactive explorations of dozens of sites along the Valley of the Kings, which served as the necropolis for New Kingdom royalty.

To reach the afterlife, Egyptians lived in accordance with ma'at, or harmony

The ancient Egyptians held many beliefs about eternal life, fueling entire industries tasked with building tombs for the dead. Their leader, the pharaoh, was believed to be divine, and the lives of ordinary people were punctuated with ritual and myth. Learn more about their religion here.

Reconstructing an average day in ancient Egypt

Egyptologists can reconstruct the intimate details of everyday life in the ancient civilization by studying the archaeological material preserved in tombs, monuments, and partially intact neighborhood layouts. Watch a comprehensive tour of the daily habits and lifestyles of ancient Egyptians with expert Dr. Joann Fletcher.

Ancient Egyptians played Senet, a board game where players threw sticks or bones as dice.

Watch the history of human migration that led to civilizations

Starting in Africa where they hunted with spears and fires, humans would gradually move out of the continent over thousands of years as they navigated crossing deserts, rivers, uneven terrain, and shifting climates. Development of technology, language, farming, and other societal structures helped build up the first civilizations.

Wealthy Egyptians slept on woven beds to allow air circulation in hot climates

The history of beds is a fascinating look at economics, social science, and cultural beliefs around what takes place during sleep. This brief survey of the history of bed-making begins roughly 5,000 years ago and runs through ancient Egypt and Rome to modern Europe. Take a look here.

Archaeologists race to record ancient Nubia

Long ignored by white archaeologists as a mere footnote, modern scientists are now racing to document what’s left of the African civilization. Evidence of ancient Nubia is at risk of vanishing under environmental, societal, and political pressures. This Undark Magazine article walks you through archaeologists' fight to record ancient Nubia.

Scholars argue Egypt's Great Sphinx depicts the pharaoh Khufu

Egypt's ancient marvel, the 66-foot, 4,500-year-old Great Sphinx, is believed to stand as a guard to the great Giza pyramids—or tombs—of pharaohs Khafre and Khufu. Archaeologists have long debated which of the two leaders' faces is on the great monument, the father (Khufu) or the son (Khafre).

Learn how the Egyptians, Romans, and other ancient civilizations worshipped the sun

In Egypt, the pharaoh was seen as the living embodiment of the son of Ra, the sun god. In Mesopotamia, the sun god Shamash was a divine judge whose light could reveal the truth. Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of sun and war, was thought to require sacrifices to prevent the universe's destruction.

Urban planning in ancient Rome

Ancient Rome represents one of the earliest examples of coordinated urban planning from a central government for which researchers have access to contemporary records. This review from MIT showcases ancient Roman cities built on various types of grids, from rectangular outlines to those shaped around two intersecting axes, with several examples and maps provided for each.

The Maya built their cities with advanced engineering

Maya cities featured pyramids, palaces, causeways, ball courts, and water-management systems that were engineered to support large populations—often tens of thousands—without the use of metal tools, draft animals, or wheeled transport.

Egypt's 'Books of the Dead' helped the dead pass through the underworld

During the New Kingdom of ancient Egypt, elaborate burial rites included the incantation of magic spells to help those who had died navigate the underworld. Texts of these spell-binding funerary guidelines, widely known as the "Books of the Dead," have survived intact.

In 1822, French scholar Jean-François Champollion deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs using the Rosetta Stone.

The hour originated from an ancient Egyptian astronomical system

The movements of astronomical objects, measured in a day and a year, form the foundation of our sense of time. The Egyptians divided each day and night into 12 time eras, using arbitrarily selected stars as references rather than movements of specific celestial objects.

See the major Egyptian monuments in high definition.

The Aztec Empire began as a three-city military alliance

The Aztec Empire emerged in 1428 when Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan formed the Triple Alliance, combining military power and tribute networks. This pact transformed the three city-states into a dominant regional empire that rapidly expanded across central Mexico.

Without mummies, ancient Egyptians feared their souls would perish

The ancient Egyptians placed major importance on mummification because of their beliefs about the afterlife. They believed a preserved body was essential for the soul’s survival, as it needed a physical form to return to. Without it, they feared the soul would perish.

The three theories explaining how the pyramids were built

There's no consensus over how the ancient monuments were built, and no blueprints left behind. But centuries of study have produced three competing theories: a simple, massive external ramp, a more complex internal ramp, or a highly sophisticated water elevator.

Mapping the shifts in ancient Greek territories

The jagged coastlines and many islands of the eastern Mediterranean peninsulas cultivated a seafaring civilization, which helped the Greeks colonize and trade in the Middle East, North Africa, and the rest of Europe. See the evolution of their territory with this quick animated map video.

The Maya were an ancient Mesoamerican civilization that built dozens of major cities across present-day Mexico and Central America.

Go inside Queen Meresankh III's tomb

Examine art, explore the structure, and let yourself be transported back 3,000 years to when the granddaughter of the Pharaoh Khufu was buried. The site, first discovered in 1927, is known as a unique underground chapel with preserved depictions of the daily life of ancient Egyptian royals, and features one of the earliest known canopic jars, vessels used to store the organs of mummified individuals.

An Egyptologist answers questions from the internet

Professor of Egyptology and Archaeology Laurel Bestock answers your questions about ancient Egypt from X. What did ancient Egyptians sound like? Why is King Tut so enduringly popular? What ancient Egyptian medicine and tools do we still use in modern times?

A timeline of the ancient Greeks

When exactly were the Ancient Greeks around on Earth? Their roots go back nearly 9,000 years to the Bronze Age with the so-called Minoan civilization. These sea-faring tribes would come together to hold off the invading Persian Empire and culminate in the glories of Athenian democracy, Spartan military discipline, and more. Check out this thorough timeline of the Ancient Greeks.

Stonehenge is one of the world's most studied prehistoric sites and was built around the same time as the Great Pyramid of Egypt.

The Royal Game of Ur, which dates back as far as 2600 BCE, is believed to be one of the oldest board games in the world.

Maritime trade in the Mediterranean accelerated during the late Bronze Age

This map illustrates the vibrant trade networks of the eastern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age (circa 1500–1200 BCE), highlighting an era of growing interconnectivity among major powers including Egypt, the Hittite Empire, Mesopotamia, and others.

Mummification in Ancient Egypt transformed a body into a divine statue

Rather than for preservation, the ritual was a means of turning the biological body into an eternal vessel for the top percent of society. With no way to preserve eyes that would shrivel during dehydration, eye sockets were filled with onions or black and white stones.

Watch the many different civilizations around the Mediterranean shift power from the year 2500 BCE to 0 BCE in this animated map.

Ancient Rome explained

Ancient Rome left a high water mark on ancient civilization with its pragmatism and administrative prowess, dominating through its efficient military, engineering, and administration. At least 50 million people—a quarter of the world population—inhabited the empire, covering 5 million square miles at its height.

Why are ancient ruins underground?

When cities fall into disrepair, it's often easier to flatten what you can and build on top. This is why modern archaeologists frequently discover ruins underground, revealing generational layers of cities rebuilt over time. This video explores major examples of this principle, from ancient Troy to even modern Seattle.

The Ishango bone suggests mathematics was born about 20,000 years ago

Ancient civilizations developed mathematical systems for various purposes, including the Egyptians for the construction of the pyramids and the Ancient Greeks for logical reasoning in theorems. However, these systems were predated by the Ishango bone—found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo—whose notches suggest a base ten system, prime numbers, and simple mathematical operations.

The earliest record of dream interpretation dates to Ancient Sumer, an analysis of a Sumerian priest king's dream around 2700 BCE.

Ancient Greece originated roughly 4,000 years ago around the Aegean Sea, and over centuries expanded as far as Spain and India.

When did people start making and using glass?

This article details the search for the ancient origins of glass, a now-common item through which archaeologists can spot histories of trade and innovation. Bronze Age glass was made from crushed quartz instead of sand, and artisans could color glass with materials such as cobalt. These trace metallic add-ons have given scientists a vital clue into the origins of glass, which is currently debated as either Egypt or the Near East.

The evolution of New York City

Originally founded as New Amsterdam, this interactive timeline lists out and provides deep dives on the major events that shaped New York City as it became America's foremost cultural and economic hub.

Explore a map of Medieval Europe, which was a patchwork of hundreds of competing states.

How women ascended the ranks in the highstakes world of Maya politics

Two bloodlines attained near total supremacy of the Maya civilization in contemporary central America: the lords of Tikal and the Kaanul Dynasty. The Kaanul, or snake, dynasty often used marriage to expand their empire, wedding their sorcerer queens to low-ranking rulers of desired lands. Read this Archaeology Magazine article to learn more about these Maya snake queens.

Caesar and Cleopatra's complicated affair

The Egyptian queen Cleopatra, a known charmer in history, had a public affair with Roman leader Julius Caesar. Read this article for details and a timeline of their doomed romance—from their first meeting to her later affair with Marc Antony.

Early Native Americans shifted from nomadic life to permanent settlements around 8500 B.C.E.

Around 8500-7900 B.C.E., many Indigenous groups began settling near rivers and lakes to harvest fish and hunt bison, moving away from a fully nomadic lifestyle. This shift toward semipermanent communities marks one of the earliest signs of organized settlement in North America.

The Middle Ages, the roughly 1,000-year period between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance, shaped the political and cultural foundations of modern Europe.