Piye's Conquest of Egypt: Kush Founds the 25th Dynasty

Piye’s conquest of Egypt was a military campaign of about 727 BC in which Piye, king of Kush in what is now Sudan, sailed north down the Nile, defeated a coalition led by Tefnakht of Sais and received the submission of the rulers of Egypt. The campaign marks the beginning of the 25th Dynasty, when kings from Nubia ruled as pharaohs. It is known in remarkable detail from Piye’s own Victory Stela, one of the longest and liveliest royal inscriptions to survive from ancient Egypt.

Background: a divided Egypt and a rising Kush

By the 8th century BC Egypt had lost its unity. During what historians call the Third Intermediate Period, power was shared among rival dynasties and local princes, many of Libyan descent, ruling cities such as Tanis, Bubastis, Leontopolis, Herakleopolis and Hermopolis.

South of Egypt, the Kingdom of Kush had grown strong around its capital Napata, near the sacred mountain of Jebel Barkal. Its kings worshipped Amun as fervently as the Egyptians did. Under Piye’s father Kashta, Kushite influence reached Thebes, and Piye’s sister Amenirdis I was installed there as the future God’s Wife of Amun, a powerful priestly office.

Causes of the campaign

In the north, Tefnakht, ruler of Sais in the western Delta, united several princes under his leadership and advanced up the Nile. Nimlot of Hermopolis abandoned his loyalty to Kush and joined him, and the coalition besieged Herakleopolis, whose ruler Peftjauawybast stayed loyal to Piye.

The stela says that Piye’s commanders in Egypt sent urgent reports of Tefnakht’s advance. Piye first dispatched an army with instructions to observe the rites of Amun at Thebes before fighting, presenting the war as a holy mission.

What happened

The Kushite army defeated Tefnakht’s allies in battles on the river and on land and besieged Hermopolis. Dissatisfied with their progress, Piye came north in person, celebrated the Opet festival at Thebes, and took command of the siege.

Hermopolis surrendered after a hard siege. Nimlot sent his wife to plead with the women of Piye’s household and offered great tribute. When Piye inspected the stables, he found the horses starving and, according to the stela, declared that this grieved him more than any of Nimlot’s other offences.

Piye then moved north, accepting the surrender of towns along the way. Memphis, the ancient capital, refused to open its gates. Piye attacked from the harbour, using ships moored against the walls as ladders, and stormed the city. He took care to purify and honour the temples of Ptah afterwards.

After visiting Heliopolis, Piye received the submission of the remaining rulers at Athribis in the Delta. Four kings came in person: Nimlot of Hermopolis, Osorkon IV of Tanis and Bubastis, Iuput II of Leontopolis and Peftjauawybast of Herakleopolis. Tefnakht, who had fled, sent messengers and swore an oath of loyalty without appearing before Piye.

The Victory Stela

Piye recorded the campaign on a granite stela about 1.8 metres high, set up in the great temple of Amun at Jebel Barkal. Its text runs to 159 lines and covers the front, sides and back of the stone. The scene at the top shows Piye before Amun and Mut, with defeated rulers bowing and bringing tribute.

The stela is unusually vivid for a royal inscription. It reports Piye’s anger at his generals, his personal piety, and even a note that only Nimlot was admitted to the palace, because the other rulers were ritually unclean as eaters of fish. The stela was found in 1862 and is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The translation by Miriam Lichtheim is the most widely read in English.

Kushite kingship and the role of Amun

Piye ruled from Napata, but he saw himself as the rightful heir of the pharaohs. Kushite kings had adopted Egyptian royal titles, wrote in Egyptian hieroglyphs and were buried with Egyptian funerary texts. Their capital lay beside Jebel Barkal, which they regarded as a southern home of Amun, matching his great temple at Karnak in Thebes.

This religious outlook runs through the whole Victory Stela. Piye orders his soldiers to purify themselves in the river at Thebes, dress in clean linen and bow before Amun before going into battle. The stela presents the Egyptian princes not only as rebels but as rulers who had neglected the gods, and it contrasts their impiety with Piye’s devotion.

Historians caution that the stela is royal propaganda, written to glorify the king and justify his war. Even so, the detailed list of towns, rulers and events agrees well with other evidence, and it is the main source for the political map of Egypt at the time.

How the campaign was fought

Much of the war was fought on the river. The Nile was the main road of Egypt, and control of boats allowed armies to move quickly and to besiege cities from the water. The stela describes river battles, the capture of ships and the use of siege towers and earth ramps against walled towns.

Piye’s restraint is a recurring theme. He spares cities that surrender, protects temples and accepts oaths of loyalty instead of removing local rulers. This policy kept the cost of conquest low but left the old power structure intact, which helps to explain why Egypt had to be reconquered a generation later.

Consequences

Piye did not stay in Egypt. He returned to Napata and left the defeated rulers in place as vassals, and Tefnakht and his successor Bakenranef continued to rule at Sais. Real Kushite control over all of Egypt began only after Piye’s death, when his successor Shabaka marched north in about 712 BC and, according to the later historian Manetho, killed Bakenranef.

The Kushite kings of the 25th Dynasty then ruled Egypt for about half a century. They restored old temples, revived classical styles of art and language, and built on a large scale at Thebes and in Nubia. Their power ended when Assyria invaded Egypt under Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal, in the reign of Taharqa and his successor Tantamani.

Key people

• Piye: king of Kush, c. 744-714 BC; buried in a pyramid at el-Kurru, with his horses in a nearby cemetery.
• Tefnakht: ruler of Sais and leader of the northern coalition; later counted as founder of the 24th Dynasty.
• Nimlot: ruler of Hermopolis who changed sides and was besieged by Piye.
• Osorkon IV: last king of the 22nd Dynasty, ruling at Tanis and Bubastis.
• Peftjauawybast: ruler of Herakleopolis and loyal ally of Piye.

Timeline

• c. 744 BC: Piye succeeds Kashta as king of Kush (dates vary by a few years).
• c. 728 BC: Tefnakht of Sais advances south; Herakleopolis is besieged.
• c. 728-727 BC: Kushite army fights in Middle Egypt; Piye comes north and celebrates the Opet festival at Thebes.
• c. 727 BC: Hermopolis surrenders; Memphis is stormed; rulers submit at Athribis.
• c. 727 BC: Piye returns to Napata and erects the Victory Stela at Jebel Barkal.
• c. 714 BC: Death of Piye.
• c. 712 BC: Shabaka reconquers Egypt and ends the line of Sais.
• 1862: The Victory Stela is discovered at Jebel Barkal.

Why it matters

Piye’s campaign brought an African kingdom from beyond Egypt’s southern frontier to the throne of the pharaohs. His stela offers a rare first-hand royal view of ancient warfare and piety, and the dynasty he founded reshaped Egyptian art, religion and politics until the Assyrian conquest.