For three hundred years after Alexander the Great peacefully conquered Egypt, the Hellenistic and the Ptolemaic period which followed saw a glorious resurgence and a golden age of society and culture in Egypt. It gave Egypt the new capital of Alexandria but it was also a period of internal strife which saw the Egyptian Empire expand and then diminish before it eventually fell to Rome.

The thing to be remembered about the Ptolemies is that they were first and foremost Greco-Macedonians not Egyptians. They maintained large armies to engage in battles with factions of the old Hellenistic empire that might not have always been in Egypt’s interest. Their need to assert themselves was not confined to military exploits but encompassed a desire to outdo the rest of the ancient world by making Alexandria the most religious and intellectual centre of culture and civilisation, even surpassing that of Athens.

Apart from elegant buildings, the second Ptolemy, “Philadelphus” built the great lighthouse at Pharos in Alexandria, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. Philadelphus was also responsible for sponsoring the translation of the Old Testament into Greek; he began the famous Alexandrian library and completed the museum started by his father. Alexandria even hosted a four-yearly set of games that were meant to rival the Olympic Games themselves. It can be seen from this that Egypt, except for providing wealth and prestige, held little interest for them. In fact the only Ptolemy to have bothered to learn the Egyptian language was the famous Cleopatra VII.

The first of the Hellenistic Pharaohs was Alexander himself and he was anointed king at the Temple of Ptah in Memphis. When Alexander died in Babylon in 323, his body was brought back to Alexandria by his General Ptolemy where it was interred in a gold sarcophagus. Following Alexander’s death there was a fight for succession that was to last for decades and saw his half-brother and eventually Ptolemy ruling Egypt. Ptolemy’s claim to the throne was at first tenuous until it was rumoured that he was in fact an illegitimate son of Philip of Macedonia and therefore also one of Alexander’s half-brothers.

All of the Greco-Macedonian Pharaohs were called Ptolemy and their reigns saw the introduction of the practice of the marriage between full brothers and sisters. This has at times been thought to be an Egyptian practice but there is little evidence of full bothers and sisters marrying before this time. This might well have been done to ensure that there was no mixing of Greek and Egyptian blood, which might have led to mixed loyalties although there is evidence of lower levels of the aristocracy marrying into the remnants of the old Egyptian royal family.

While the Ptolemies might not have wanted to embrace Egyptian nationality they did embrace the Egyptian religions and incorporated them with their own. They introduced the new hybrid god Serapis, for example, a mixture of Osiris, Apis, and a number of Greek deities. The addition of birthing houses to many temples cemented the link between the Ptolemies and the gods. If the Pharaoh was born of a god then there was no doubt about the right to rule. Prodigious building went on during this period with the most wonderful examples being the temple of Horus at Edfu, the Temple of Isis at Philae and the temple of Hathor at Dendara. In Thebes, temples were built to Hathor at the Deir el Medina and among others temples were constructed to Khonsu and Ipet at Karnak.

The result of the internecine battles that raged within the Ptolemy families, resulted in increased intervention from Rome, often called upon to settle disputes. The part that Rome played in the murderous conflicts between Cleopatra VII and her brothers Ptolemy XIII and XIV brought in the last phase of the Ptolemaic kingship. Cleopatra was able to briefly resurrect the glories of the past through the military genius of Mark Antony. This, however, was brought to a swift conclusion at the Battle of Actium, off the coast of Greece, in a battle between Cleopatra and Mark Anthony, and the Roman forces led by Octavian, the new Emperor of Rome. This was to be the death blow which brought the House of Ptolemy down. Egypt was then absorbed into the Roman Empire, and the glories of her past, never to be repeated.

The Egyptian religions began to wane with the rise of Christianity, a religion that has its roots in Egyptian Judaism. The differences between Christianity and the Egyptian Wisdom and Mystery religions were buffered to some extent by the hybrid religion of Serapis, and this mixture of new and old religions made it more acceptable to the people of the new age of Christianity during the Roman period which followed on from the Ptolemaic one.

With the rise in Christianity, many of the temples in Thebes became Coptic monasteries from which they still take the name ‘Deir’ as in Deir el Medina and Deir el Bahri. The Medinet Habu also became a monastery and a Bishopric until the advent of Islam. The Coptic Christians often used the pagan temples, but covered over the walls with mud to hide the scenes from view.