Egypt — The Empire in Decline
This series follows Egypt’s long slide from the late New Kingdom’s aftershocks into foreign domination — roughly the Third Intermediate Period (c. 1077–664 BC) through the Late Period up to the Achaemenid conquest (525 BC). Instead of a single collapse, the story is a patchwork of weakened kings, powerful regional governors, foreign dynasts, and dramatic reversals: priest-kings and nomarchs carving out local power, Libyan and Kushite rulers claiming the throne, Assyrian and Babylonian interventions, a short Saite revival, and finally Persia’s takeover. What you’ll find in the videos The cultural and political texture behind decline: how nomarchs and priesthoods eroded central authority.
Egypt as a chessboard for neighbors: Shoshenq, Assyria, Kush/Nubia (Piye, Taharqa), and the tug-of-war for Thebes and the Delta. The Saite comeback and its limits: reunification, trade with Greeks, energetic campaigns
(Psamtik II, Amasis), and how foreign advisers both helped and undermined Egypt. The human drama that closes the arc: Apries’s overthrow, Amasis’s diplomacy and tricks, Psamtik III’s Last Stand at Pelusium, and the end of native pharaonic rule. Why watch or read this playlist These episodes mix politics, battlefield moments, diplomatic intrigue, and vivid primary-source anecdotes (Herodotus, stelae, court letters).
If you like stories about state failure and revival, the messy realities of empire, or the cultural resilience that outlived political collapse, this sequence gives a compact—yet textured—tour from imperial fragmentation to foreign rule. Read it if you prefer tight summaries and source notes; watch it if you want maps, monuments, and the drama of events brought to life.
References:
Third Intermediate Period of Egypt - Wikipedia
Third Intermediate Period - The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Late Period - Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (Egypt)
Achaemenid Dynasty in Egypt - Encyclopaedia Britannica
Twenty-second Dynasty of Egypt - Wikipedia
Piye - Wikipedia