who watched a succession of city-states, petty rulers, and
chaos in Egypt and entered the land to restore the periods
of spiritual power and majesty. The Persians, entering the
Nile Valley in 525 B.C.E., came with a sense of disdain
concerning the cultic practices of Egypt and the various
rulers competing for power.
ALEXANDER III THE GREAT, arriving in Egypt in 332
B.C.E., was one of the few occupying foreigners who
appeared to embody the old ideals of the pharaohs, but
his successors, the Ptolemies (304–30 B.C.E.), could not
immerse themselves into the true spiritual concepts
involved. They ruled only from ALEXANDRIA without
impacting on the distant nomes. With the death of
CLEOPATRA VIIin 30 B.C.E., the pharaohs became faded
monuments of the past.
Suggested Readings:Berger, Melvin, and Gilda Berger.
Mummies of the Pharaohs: Exploring the Valley of the Kings.
Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2001;
Clayton, Peter A. Chronicle of the Pharaohs: The Reign-by-
Reign Record of the Rulers and Dynasties of Ancient Egypt.
New York: Thames & Hudson, 1994; De Beler, Aude
Gros. Pharaohs. Paris: La Maison de Molière, 2000;
Muller, Hans Wolfgang, and Eberhard Thiem. Gold of the
Pharaohs.Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1999;
Patridge, Robert B. Faces of the Pharaohs: Royal Mummies
and Coffins from Ancient Thebes.New York: David Brown,
1996; Pickles, Dewayne E., and Arthur M. Schlesinger,
ed. Egyptian Kings and Queens and Classical Deities.New
York: Chelsea House, 1997; Quirke, Stephen. Who Were
the Pharaohs? A History of Their Names with a List of Car-
touches.Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, 1991; Tyldes-
ley, Joyce A. The Private Lives of the Pharaohs: Unlocking
the Secrets of Egyptian Royalty.New York: TV Books,
2001.Pharbaites See HURBEIT.Pharbaites 305