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Hathor

The history of Egypt is the longest continuous history, as a unified state, of any country in the world. The Nile valley forms a natural geographic and economic unit, bounded to the east and west by deserts, to the north by the sea and to the south by the Cataracts of the Nile. The need to have a single authority to manage the waters of the Nile led to the creation of the world's first state in Egypt in about 3000 BC. Egypt's peculiar geography made it a difficult country to attack, which is why Pharaonic Egypt was for so long an independent and self-contained state. The Hyksos were among the earliest foreign rulers of Egypt, but the ancient Egyptians regained control of their country after the Hykso period. The Neo-Assyrian Empire also controlled Egypt for a while before native Egyptians regained control.

Once Egypt did succumb to foreign rule, however, it proved unable to escape from it, and for 2,400 years, Egypt was governed by a series of foreign powers: the Nubians, Persians, Macedonians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Ottomans, French, and British. During these 2,400 years, Egypt was independently governed under the Ptolemies, Ikhshidids, Fatimids, Ayyubids, Mamluks and Muhammad Ali. The founders and rulers of these governments, however, were not native to Egypt.

When Gamal Abdel Nasser (President of Egypt) (1954–1970) remarked that he was the first native Egyptian to exercise sovereign power in the country since Pharaoh Nectanebo II, deposed by the Persians in 343 BC, he was only exaggerating slightly.

In this encyclopedia, Egyptian history has been divided into eight periods:

• History of ancient Egypt: 3100 BC to 525 BC
• History of Achaemenid Egypt: 525 BC to 332 BC
• History of Ptolemaic Egypt: 332 BC to 30 BC
• History of Roman Egypt: 30 BC to AD 639
• History of Arab Egypt: 639 to 1517
• History of Ottoman Egypt: 1517 to 1805
• History of Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty: 1805 to 1882
• History of modern Egypt: since 1882

• Aegyptus
• Ancient Egypt
• Egyptian mythology
• Egyptians
• History of Africa
• History of the Middle East
• Pharaoh
• History of Ancient Egypt
• Coptic history

• Ancient Egyptian Civilization - Aldokkan
• Ancient Egyptian History - A comprehensive & concise educational website focusing on the basic and the advanced in all aspects of Ancient Egypt
• Egypt.. the past and the present
• WWW-VL: History: Ancient Egypt