kingdom · Egypt, North Africa and Sudan

Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt

664 BCE – 525 BCE · capital Sais

The Saite Dynasty, which freed Egypt from Assyrian and Kushite control and gave it a last long era of native prosperity.

Origins

Psamtik I, son of the Saite ruler Necho I, began in 664 BCE as an Assyrian vassal after Assyria drove out the Kushite Empire. As Assyria weakened he threw off its overlordship, and in 656 BCE he took Thebes peacefully by having his daughter Nitocris adopted as the future God's Wife of Amun.

Rule and society

The Saite kings relied on Greek and Carian mercenaries and allowed Greek traders to settle at Naukratis. Necho II began a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea, sent a Phoenician fleet around Africa and killed King Josiah of Judah at Megiddo, but lost to Babylon at Carchemish in 605 BCE. Art and texts deliberately revived Old Kingdom models, and the Demotic script came into use. Amasis II courted Greek cities.

Decline and legacy

In 525 BCE the Persian king Cambyses II defeated Psamtik III at Pelusium and took Memphis, turning the country into Achaemenid Egypt. Saite art and religion shaped Late Period Egypt, and Greek knowledge of Egypt, through Herodotus, rests largely on this era.

Lineage

Kushite Empire 1070 BCE – 350 CETwenty-sixth Dynasty of EgyptAchaemenid Egypt 525 BCE – 404 BCE

Connections (2)

Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt was a vassal of Assyrian Empire664 BCE – 655 BCE
Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt was conquered by Achaemenid Empire525 BCE

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Cite this page

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

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻