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The 26th Dynasty: when Egypt copied its own past

14 October 2026

The 26th Dynasty ruled Egypt from 664 to 525 BC, from the city of Sais in the western Delta, which is why it is also called the Saite Dynasty. Its founder, Psamtik I, began as a local ruler installed by the Assyrians and ended as king of the whole country. His line lasted until the Persian king Cambyses conquered Egypt in 525 BC.

The dynasty is famous for looking backwards. Its sculptors and scribes copied tomb scenes, statues and religious texts made one to two thousand years earlier, so carefully that Saite work can pass for Old or Middle Kingdom work at first glance.

Five Saite kings put the heart in their throne names

Five of the six Saite kings put the word jb, "heart", into their throne names, always next to the sun god Ra. Read the throne names side by side and the family pattern shows at once:

Psamtik I, 664–610 BC: Wahibre
Necho II, 610–595 BC: Wehemibre
Psamtik II, 595–589 BC: Neferibre, "beautiful is the heart of Ra"
Apries, 589–570 BC: Haaibre, "jubilant is the heart of Ra"
Amasis, also called Ahmose II, 570–526 BC: Khnemibre
Psamtik III, 526–525 BC: Ankhkaenre, the odd one out

Heart Sun

Wahibre takes three signs

Psamtik I's throne name is wꜣḥ-jb-Rꜥ, said Wahibre: "constant is the heart of Ra". It takes three signs. The sun disc writes Ra and stands first out of respect, though it is read last. The fibre swab writes wꜣḥ, "to endure", and the heart writes jb. Swap the swab for the heart and windpipe, nfr, "beautiful", and you have Neferibre, the throne name of his grandson Psamtik II.

His birth name, psmṯk, said Psamtik, is spelled sound by sound: the stool (p), the door bolt (s), the owl (m), the tethering rope (ṯ, like the ch in church) and the basket (k). Where the name came from and what it meant are both debated. Greek writers turned it into Psammetichos.

Fibre swab Heart and windpipe Stool Door bolt Owl Tethering rope Basket with handle

Write Psamtik's cartouche

Saite artists copied the old masters

Ibi, chief steward of Psamtik I's daughter Nitocris in Thebes, had his tomb (TT36) decorated partly with scenes copied from the tomb of another Ibi, a 6th Dynasty governor buried at Deir el-Gebrawi in Middle Egypt. The model was about 1,600 years old.

At Saqqara, Saite officials were buried in deep stone chambers near the pyramid of Unas, the first king to have the Pyramid Texts carved inside his tomb. Their walls carry spells from those same old collections: the Pyramid Texts, the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Dead.

The fashion was already strong before Psamtik, under the Kushite kings of the 25th Dynasty, Taharqa's line. Mentuemhat, the governor of Thebes who served under the Kushites and stayed on under the Saites, had reliefs in his tomb that mix Old Kingdom bodies and kilts with a scene copied from a New Kingdom tomb.

Saite copies can pass for Old Kingdom work

A relief carved in the 6th century BC can copy Old Kingdom style so well that only the names date it, so read the cartouche before you trust the style.

Names can mislead too. Wahibre is Psamtik I's throne name. It is also the birth name of Apries, the king Greek writers called Apries and the Bible Hophra.

Some cartouches were emptied on purpose. After Psamtik II fought the kingdom of Kush around 592 BC, Kushite monuments in Egypt had their royal names and emblems hacked out. A gap where a Kushite name should be, Taharqa's among them, is often Saite work.

Rome holds two Saite obelisks

The Saite capital is mostly gone, and Saite royal monuments are scattered. Two obelisks in Rome carry their cartouches: Psamtik II's at Montecitorio, brought to Rome by Augustus, and Apries's on the back of Bernini's elephant in front of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.

At Abu Simbel, Greek and Carian soldiers who marched south with Psamtik II scratched their names on the leg of one of Ramesses II's seated colossi, among the earliest Greek writing found in Egypt. Near Memphis, the great galleries of the Serapeum were cut for the Apis bulls from the 26th Dynasty on, and the name of Amasis is carved there on a giant granite sarcophagus.

On the site's timeline the 26th Dynasty sits at the start of the Late Period, between the Kushite kings and the Persians.

Open the 26th Dynasty on the timeline

Questions

Why is it called the Saite dynasty?

Because its kings came from Sais, a city in the western Nile Delta, and made it their capital. Little of the city survives above ground today.

How did the 26th Dynasty end?

In 525 BC the Persian king Cambyses II invaded, captured Psamtik III after a reign of about six months and made Egypt a province of his empire. The Persian kings are counted as the 27th Dynasty.

Who were the Greek mercenaries of Psamtik I?

Ionian Greek and Carian soldiers, sent with the support of Gyges, king of Lydia, from about 662 BC. Psamtik used them to defeat rival rulers in the Delta, and later Saite kings kept hiring Greeks.

Is Necho II the pharaoh in the Bible?

Yes, Necho II is generally identified with the Pharaoh Necho of the books of Kings, Chronicles and Jeremiah, who fought at Megiddo and Carchemish. Apries appears in Jeremiah as Hophra.

Glossary

birth name: The name a king was given at birth, written in the second cartouche after the title "son of Ra". Egyptologists also call it the nomen.
Book of the Dead: A collection of spells written on papyrus and placed in burials from the New Kingdom on, to guide the dead through the afterlife. Egyptians called it the Spells for Coming Forth by Day.
coffin: A box for the body, of wood or stone, often shaped like a person and painted with spells, names and gods. Rich burials nested several coffins inside a sarcophagus.
Coffin Texts: Spells painted inside coffins of the Middle Kingdom, many of them taken over from the Pyramid Texts.
dynasty: A line of kings counted together, usually one family. Egyptologists number Egypt's kings in about 30 dynasties, following the priest Manetho.
Middle Kingdom: The age when Egypt was united again, about 2055 to 1650 BC. Its texts became the classic form of the language that later scribes copied.
pyramid: A royal tomb with four sloping sides meeting at a point, built in the Old and Middle Kingdoms. Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza is the largest.
Pyramid Texts: The oldest religious spells of Egypt, carved in the burial rooms of pyramids from the reign of Unas, around 2350 BC, on.
relief: A carving on a flat surface. In raised relief the background is cut away. In sunk relief the figures are cut into the stone.
scribe: A person trained to read and write, who kept accounts, wrote letters and copied texts. Few Egyptians could write, and scribes were well respected.
throne name: The name a king took when he came to the throne, written in the first cartouche after the title "King of Upper and Lower Egypt". Egyptologists also call it the prenomen.
tomb: A burial place: a pit, a mastaba, a pyramid or rooms cut into rock. Its chapel was where the family brought offerings.