kingdom · Egypt, North Africa and Sudan

Twenty-first Dynasty of Egypt

1077 BCE – 943 BCE (approx.) · capital Tanis

The kings of Tanis who ruled northern Egypt after the New Kingdom, sharing the country with the priests of Amun at Thebes.

Origins

On the death of Ramesses XI around 1077 BCE, Smendes, who had governed the north from the Delta, became king and founded the Twenty-first Dynasty. The capital moved to Tanis in the north-eastern Delta, built largely from monuments carried from the abandoned Ramesside capital Pi-Ramesses.

Rule and society

The Tanite kings ruled Lower and Middle Egypt, while the Theocracy of Amun at Thebes governed the south with family ties to them. Tanis was laid out as a northern Thebes with a great temple of Amun. The intact royal tombs found there by Pierre Montet in 1939 to 1940 include the silver coffin and gold mask of Psusennes I. Siamun probably campaigned in Philistia, and Osorkon the Elder was a Libyan.

Decline and legacy

Around 943 BCE Sheshonq I, a Libyan chief of the Meshwesh and relative by marriage of the last king, Psusennes II, succeeded peacefully and founded the Twenty-second Dynasty of Egypt.

Lineage

Egyptian Empire New Kingdom 1550 BCE – 1070 BCETwenty-first Dynasty of EgyptTwenty-second Dynasty of Egypt 943 BCE – 720 BCE

Connections (1)

Theocracy of Amun at Thebes was a vassal of Twenty-first Dynasty of Egypt1077 BCE – 943 BCE

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Cite this page

APA: The Epoch Institute. (2026). Twenty-first Dynasty of Egypt. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/twenty-first-dynasty-of-egypt
MLA: “Twenty-first Dynasty of Egypt.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/twenty-first-dynasty-of-egypt. Accessed .
Chicago: The Epoch Institute. “Twenty-first Dynasty of Egypt.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/twenty-first-dynasty-of-egypt.
Harvard: The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Twenty-first Dynasty of Egypt’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/twenty-first-dynasty-of-egypt (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻