During the New Kingdom Ramsees II and his successors were unable to pull Egypt out of what would prove to be a long and steady decline, bringing to an end the glorious age of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs. During the 20th dynasty, towards the end of the 2nd millennium B.C., the Egyptian empire began to falter under the strain of repeated attacks by Mediterranean invaders known only as "Peoples of the Sea," who crossed over from the region of Greece and attacked Egypt from the north or via Libya in the west.
The Third Intermediate Period was now upon Egypt. As one weak dynasty followed another, the Country slid into anarchy. Competing dynasties, including one founded by priests and another by a Libyan prince, began to tear the country apart. Eventually, in 667 B.C., the country was invaded by the Assyrians, a neighboring Middle Eastern empire with a reputation for ruthlessness and, for a brief while, they dominated the country. See ( Foreign Powers Occupied Egypt )
The Egyptians fought back and momentarily reestablished their rule, only to be invaded once more, in 525 B.C., by the powerful Persian Empire, which reduced their country to the status of a mere province. Despite initially respecting the customs and traditions of the ancient Egyptians, the new Persian rulers became heavy-handed once they had consolidated their power.
A series of anti-Persian uprisings culminated in a brief spell of renewed Egyptian independence, only to be dashed by yet another Persian invasion in 341 B.C. Barely a decade later, in 332 B.C., a 25-year-old Greek commander, known to the Western world as Alexander the Great, scored a series of defeats against the Persians and heralded in a new phase of Egyptian history.
Alexander was the young ruler of a group of united Greek city states. He had shown himself to be a brilliant military commander and was in the process of building himself a huge empire. Jubilant at having been liberated from their Persian overlords, the Egyptians gave Alexander a hero's welcome. In Egypt, Alexander made the difficult journey to Siwa to consult the famous oracle of Amun.
It was a highly significant act for the Greek commander, who had dreamed in his youth that he was the son of Amun. Fortunately, his divine birth was confirmed by the oracle. Satisfied, the priests of Amun accorded him the honor of a deity, and he was accepted as the new pharaoh of Egypt. Yet the ambitious Alexander had pressing military engagements elsewhere, and the following year he left Egypt to wage campaigns in the Middle East and the Indus Valley, in present-day Pakistan.
The young commander's phenomenal career was cut short by a fever in 323 B.C. before he ever had the chance to return to Egypt. Following his death, his empire was divided amongst his most powerful generals. Egypt went to his close friend and companion, Ptolemy. The Egyptians, unaware of the extent to which they would lose their independence, were quite happy to accept him as Alexander's heir and to proclaim him their new pharaoh.
The arrival of the Greeks dealt the final blow to the pharaonic age. Whereas before, the Egyptians had successfully pulled themselves out of periods of sustained crisis and reestablished their own dynasties, it would be a long time before the country would be ruled by native rulers once more. The Greeks were now in Egypt to stay, and for the next 300 years, it was Ptolemy's who would hold sway over the country.
