There is no denying that Cleopatra remains as one of the most well-known rulers of Egypt.

Cleopatra VII Philopator was born around 70/69 BC, before becoming the Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt at a relatively young age. As a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she was a descendant of its founder Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of Alexander the Great.

As one of the most educated women in the Mediterranean region at the time, she was the woman who captured the heart of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.

She was the 'Queen of the Nile', a woman capable of exercising her power as a ruler to the fullest.

As the last ruler of Egypt's Ptolemaic Kingdom, it was only after her death, that Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire, marking the end of the last Hellenistic state in the Mediterranean and of the age that had lasted since the reign of Alexander.

Cleopatra was the Pharaoh of Egypt, and ancient Egypt history wouldn't be complete without her.

As one of the most iconic rulers in history, Netflix created a series dedicated to her, but as a Black woman.

And this is exactly what made the internet angry.

Cleopatra was born in Alexandria to the ruling Ptolemaic pharaoh Ptolemy XII, which means that she had a Greek descent.

But although her first language was Koine Greek, she was the only Ptolemaic ruler to learn and use the Egyptian language.

Despite the fact that Egypt is in Africa, a continent originally dubbed the "Dark Continent," that doesn't mean that Cleopatra should be black.

A petition on Change.org by Maha Shehata and Aikk Yasser wanted to boycott the Netflix series, blaming the documentary for "falsifying history."

According to the petition’s founders, the petition was created by Egyptians who felt that Egyptian history was being misrepresented.

“Afrocentrism is a pseudoscience that is pushing a group’s agenda to claim Egypt’s history and rob the actual Egyptians of it. By using false articles and zero evidence, they are still attempting to falsify history,” read the petition’s opening description.

“ [...] This is in no way against black people, and is simply a wake up call to preserve the history and the integrity of the Egyptians and the Greeks.”

"The show is clearly done to complement the Afrocentric movement, which claims to be the owner of the ancient Egyptian civilization, and to consolidate what the movement promotes. Egypt was never black and it was never white, Egypt is just Egypt. There are many great African/black civilizations, but Egypt was/is NOT one of them. Sign the petition to stop the falsification of history!" argued the authors of the petition.

But what enraged people the most, was that the official trailer contains a snippet stating that:

"I don’t care what they tell you in school. Cleopatra was Black".

Regardless, Cleopatra's race has long been debated.

Queen Cleopatra, the last active Hellenistic ruler of the Macedonian-led Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, has caused debates in some circles for more than many years.

While some scholars have concluded that she was largely of Macedonian Greek ancestry, with some Persian, others have wondered whether she had additional ancestries.

Studies that traced the main origins of Cleopatra as a black woman can be traced back to at least the 19th century.

From there, there are studies that suggest Cleopatra described herself as black in the New Testament's Book of Acts, with some studies suggesting that Cleopatra was part Jewish, and more.

But still, scholars have generally identified Cleopatra as having been essentially of Greek ancestry with some Persian and Sogdian Iranian ancestry.

This conclusion is based on the fact that Cleopatra's ancestry could be traced back to her Macedonian Greek family (the Ptolemaic dynasty), which had intermarried with the Seleucid dynasty. And this can also be described from her busts statues, which portray Cleopatra as a Greek woman in style.

Then, a documentary in 2009 speculated that Cleopatra might have been part North African, in a conclusion that was based on the examination of a headless skeleton of a female child in a 20 BCE tomb in Ephesus (modern Turkey).

The remains which were hypothesized to be those of Arsinoe IV, the half-sister to Cleopatra, suggested that the race of the remains of the girl may have been "North African".

In a more recent studies, suggest that Cleopatra was white of Macedonian descent, just like all of the Ptolemy rulers, who lived in Egypt.

Debates like these shall continue, simply because there is no genetic basis for race, and without it, nobody can really identify Cleopatra's "true racial background."

All researchers can do, is tracing her from her family tree, or link her race to some political decisions she made during her life as queen.

It's worth noting that back in 2020, actress Gal Gadot was casted as Queen Cleopatra in a project film, meaning that if that project commenced, Cleopatra would have been portrayed by a white woman.

But at the time, Egyptian-Australian writer and journalist Daniel Nour contended that Egyptians should have a say who is cast as Cleopatra, as she was a "queen of Egyptian history."

Nour argues that for Egyptian women "the choice to cast an Egyptian woman in a role like Cleopatra can be incredibly empowering," adding that since Cleopatra is an Egyptian queen of Greek ancestry, she is representative of the genetic diversity of modern Egypt.

While the project was met with high interest, Paramount was not prepared to meet the timeline that the creative elements necessitated. Because of this, the project was delayed.

Following the debate of the 2023 Queen Cleopatra, the petition on Change.org was suddenly removed.

"This petition isn't available. Either the URL is incorrect, it violated our Community Guidelines, or the starter removed it," the page said.