Egypt

Origins and formation

Ancient Egypt was a civilization along the lower Nile in eastern North Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150 BC, when Upper and Lower Egypt were united by Menes, whom most Egyptologists identify with Narmer. Its history is a series of stable kingdoms broken by intermediate periods. The stable stretches are the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, and the New Kingdom. A game entry called Egypt has to choose which of those kingdoms is the face. The union of 3150 BC is the conventional start, not a single reign.¹

Defining periods

Cleopatra VII ruled the Ptolemaic kingdom from 51 to 30 BC and was its last active Hellenistic pharaoh. She descended from Ptolemy I, a Macedonian general of Alexander. Her first language was Greek, and she is the only Ptolemaic ruler known to have learned Egyptian. After her death Egypt became a Roman province. That is the end of an independent Egyptian kingdom in this lead, more than three thousand years after the union. Ramses, named on the Leader Pass page, belongs to the New Kingdom era of builders and campaigns. The retrieved biography used here is Cleopatra’s, not his year-by-year reign. The two lives are not one pharaoh.^{1 2}

Leaders

The Leader Pass adds Ramses of Egypt and a Ptolemaic Cleopatra. The English page and the Simplified Chinese page both place them in the Rulers of the Sahara Pack. The Chinese page calls the second figure a Ptolemaic Cleopatra, which marks her as a new take on a classic leader rather than the only Cleopatra the game has ever had. The launch portrait is not named on these pages. This essay does not invent that name.^{3 4}

The pack requires the base game, and some Leader Pass leaders require earlier DLC. The Sahara footnotes, as retrieved, tie Sundiata to Gathering Storm. They do not put that requirement on the two Egyptian names. A persona is a second portrait and a second ability. It is not a second ancient kingdom.^{3 4}

Legacy and interpretation

Egypt’s legacy on the history page is a sequence of kingdoms along one river. Cleopatra’s legacy is the close of Ptolemaic rule and the Roman province. The published Civilization VII Egypt essay is that longer Nile history. This page adds only the leaders the Civ6 pages actually name. Reading Ramses as if he were Cleopatra, or Cleopatra as if she united the Two Lands in 3150 BC, collapses the sequence.^{1 2}

A closer look

The update notes mention Nubia in a separate balance block and tag Nubian pyramids as their own item. Nubia is a different civilization pack on the English hub. It is not this Egypt entry. A neighboring pack does not fill in Egypt’s launch leader.⁵

In Civilization VI

The civilization’s own pack stays unconfirmed. Ramses and Ptolemaic Cleopatra are Leader Pass content. The published Civilization VII essay is the counterpart. Keep about 3150 BC, the New Kingdom, Cleopatra’s reign of 51 to 30 BC, and the Roman province on separate lines.^{1 2 3}