This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: "List of historical capitals of Egypt" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for stand-alone lists. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted.Find sources: "List of historical capitals of Egypt" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The current capital of Egypt is Cairo. Over the course of its history, Egypt has had many capitals. Its earliest capital was Tjenu, better known as Thinis, which may have been the capital of the hypothetical Thinite Confederacy prior to Egypt's unification. During the First, Second and Third Intermediate Periods, Egypt had multiple capitals held by rival dynasties.

Thinis was Egypt's first capital following its unification in c. 3100 BCE. The country's current capital is Cairo, and this has been the case since 972. This makes Cairo Egypt's longest-running capital city, having retained this status for over 1,050 years under the rule of six dynasties followed by the British protectorate of Egypt and the Republic of Egypt.

Alexandria was the second longest-lasting capital of Egypt, being used for the entirety of the Greco-Roman period, which lasted for 973 years. Memphis was the capital of Egypt for over 700 years and was the seat of the power for the whole of the Old Kingdom period. Thebes was used as the capital for approximately 485 years, mostly during the Middle and New Kingdoms.

List of Egyptian capitals


Name	Time Period	Ruling Dynasties	Ref.
Tjenu (Thinis)	c. 3150–2686 BCE	First Dynasty Second Dynasty	^[1]
Men-nefer (Memphis)	c. 2686–2160 BCE c. 720–664 BCE 525–404 BCE 343–332 BCE	Third Dynasty Fourth Dynasty Fifth Dynasty Sixth Dynasty Seventh Dynasty Eighth Dynasty Twenty-fifth Dynasty (Kush Empire) Twenty-seventh Dynasty (Achaemenid Empire) Thirty-first Dynasty (Achaemenid Empire)	^[2]
Henen-Nesut (Heracleopolis Magna)	c. 2160–2040 BCE	Ninth Dynasty Tenth Dynasty	^[3]
Waset (Thebes)	c. 2130–1991 BCE c. 1650–1346 BCE c. 1332–1279 BCE 664–656 BCE	Eleventh Dynasty Sixteenth Dynasty Seventeenth Dynasty Eighteenth Dynasty Nineteenth Dynasty Twenty-fifth Dynasty (Kush Empire)^[4]
Itjtawy	c. 1991–1650 BCE	Twelfth Dynasty Thirteenth Dynasty	^[5]
Avaris	c. 1725–1550 BCE	Fourteenth Dynasty Fifteenth Dynasty (Hyksos)
Akhetaten (Amarna)	c. 1346–1332 BCE	Eighteenth Dynasty (Amarna Period)	^[6]
Pi-Ramesses	c. 1279–1077 BCE	Nineteenth Dynasty Twentieth Dynasty
Tanis	c. 1077–943 BCE	Twenty-first Dynasty	^[7]
Per-Bast (Bubastis)	c. 943–720 BCE	Twenty-second Dynasty
Leontopolis	c. 837–720 BCE	Twenty-third Dynasty
Sais	c. 732–720 BCE 664–525 BCE 404–398 BCE	Twenty-fourth Dynasty Twenty-sixth Dynasty Twenty-eighth Dynasty	^[8]
Djedet (Mendes)	398–380 BCE	Twenty-ninth Dynasty
Sebennytos (Samannud)	380–343 BCE	Thirtieth Dynasty	^[9]
Alexandria	332 BCE–641 CE	Macedonian Empire Ptolemaic dynasty Roman Empire Palmyrene Empire Byzantine Empire Sasanian Empire
Fustat	641–750 905–972	Rashidun Caliphate Umayyad Caliphate Abbasid Caliphate Ikhshidid Dynasty Fatimid Caliphate
Al-Askar	750–868	Abbasid Caliphate
Al-Qata'i	868–905	Tulunid Dynasty
Cairo	972–present	Fatimid Caliphate Ayyubid Dynasty Mamluk Sultanate Ottoman Empire Muhammad Ali Dynasty British protectorate of Egypt Republic of Egypt

References

^ Wilkinson, Toby A.H. (2000). Early Dynastic Egypt. Abingdon: Routledge. p. 67. ISBN 0-415-26011-6.
^ Shaw, Ian (2003). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press, p.279
^ An Introduction to the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, 2008. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. 2008.
^ Török, László (1998). The Kingdom of Kush: Handbook of the Napatan-Meroitic Civilization. Leiden: BRILL. p. 185. ISBN 90-04-10448-8.
^ Arnold, Dorothea (1991). "Amenemhat I and the Early Twelfth Dynasty at Thebes". Metropolitan Museum Journal. 26. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: 5–48. doi:10.2307/1512902. JSTOR 1512902. S2CID 191398579.
^ "The Official Website of the Amarna Project". Archived from the original on 8 October 2008. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
^ Snape, Steven (2014). The Complete Cities of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. p. 335. ISBN 978-0-500-77240-9.
^ Ian Shaw & Paul Nicholson, The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, British Museum Press, 1995. p.250
^ Gray, Leon (2010). The New Cultural Atlas of Egypt. Marshall Cavendish. p. 143. ISBN 9780761478775.

Egypt topics

History

Chronology	Prehistoric Ancient topics Achaemenid 27th Dynasty 31st Dynasty Ptolemaic Battle of Actium Lighthouse of Alexandria Roman Diocese of Egypt Library of Alexandria Christian Sassanid Muslim Rashidun Caliphate Fustat Islamization Tulunid dynasty Ikhshidid dynasty Fatimid Caliphate Crusader invasions Ayyubid dynasty Mamluk Sultanate Mamluk Ottoman Ottoman Egypt Khedivate and Kingdom of Egypt Muhammad Ali dynasty Nahda Khedivate Egyptian–Ethiopian War Urabi revolt Modern French occupation Revolt of Cairo British occupation 1919 revolution World War II Sultanate Kingdom 1948 Arab–Israeli War Republic Nasser era 1952 Egyptian Revolution Land reform Suez Crisis United Arab Republic Six-Day War Sadat era Yom Kippur War Egyptian–Libyan War Assassination of Anwar Sadat Mubarak era 2010s Crisis 2011 Egyptian revolution 2013 Rabaa massacre
By topic	Anarchism Capital Cigarette industry Constitution Copts Genetic Healthcare Jews Muslim Brotherhood 1928–1938 1939–1954 1954–present Parliament Population Postal Saladin Timekeeping devices
By city	Alexandria Cairo Port Said

Geography
Biota Borders Cities Climate Deserts Earthquakes Environmental issues Fossils Geology Halfaya Pass Islands Lakes Mountains Mount Sinai Nile Delta Northern coast Oases Qattara Depression Red Sea Riviera Rivers Nile Sinai Peninsula Suez Canal Towns and villages Wadis Wildlife