List of pharaohs
| Pharaoh of Egypt | |
|---|---|
| Details | |
| Style | Five-name titulary |
| First monarch | Narmer/Menes |
| Last monarch |
|
| Formation | c. 3100 BC (± 150 years) |
| Abolition |
|
| Residence | Varies by era |
| Appointer | Hereditary |
The pharaohs were the rulers of ancient Egypt from the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt c. 3100 BC, with several times of fragmentation and foreign rule. The specific title of "pharaoh" (pr-ꜥꜣ) was not used until the New Kingdom, c. 1400 BC, but it is retroactively applied to all Egyptian kings; the generic term for monarchs was "nesut" (nswt). In addition to these titles, pharaohs had a complex royal titulary that remained relatively constant during its 3000-year history, having up to five royal names.
Egypt was continually governed, at least in part, by native pharaohs for approximately 2500 years, until it was conquered by the Kingdom of Kush in the late 8th century BC, whose rulers adopted the pharaonic titulature and became the 25th Dynasty. Following 100 years of Kushite rule, Egypt experienced another century of independent native rule before being conquered by the Persian Achaemenid Empire. The last native pharaoh was Nectanebo II of the short-lived 30th Dynasty, which ended when the Persians conquered Egypt for a second time in 342 BC. The Persians were in turn conquered by the Macedonian Greeks of Alexander the Great in 332 BC, after which Egypt was ruled by the Hellenic pharaohs of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Their rule came to an end with the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BC, and pharaonic Egypt cesased to be an independent monarchy. However, Roman emperors continued to be accorded pharaonic titles by the Egyptians until the reign of Maximinus Daza in 313 AD.
The dates provided for most of Egypt's early history are only approximate and may vary depending on the author, sometimes by centuries. The names and order of kings is mostly based on the Digital Egypt for Universities database developed by the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. For royal titles and hieroglyphs, see the handbook of Jürgen von Beckerath, as well as the website Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, which itself contains extensive bibliography.
Regnal numbers did not exist in ancient Egypt and is a modern way to distinguish pharaohs who shared the same personal name.