Head of Taharka

Karnak, Dynasty 25, 690–664 BC
Nubian Museum, Egypt

The 7th century in Egypt saw the kingdom pinched between the powers of Nubia in the south and Assyria in the Middle East. A complicated set of invasions and counter-invasions led to the replacement of the earlier Nubian (25th) dynasty by the native Saite (26th) dynasty.

Taharqa (also spelled Taharka) was the successor of Shebitku (previous page) as ruler of Egypt's 25th dynasty. Biblical and Greek sources mention Taharqa, who fought repeated Assyrian invasions by Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal. Assyria was never able to conquer Egypt definitively, but in 672 they imposed a native Egyptian, though Assyria-friendly, Saite government in Egypt, whose ruler, Necho I, chased Taharka back to Nubia. In 664, Taharqa's nephew Tantamani reinvaded Egypt from Nubia and killed Necho, but was pushed back to Nubia by yet another Assyrian invasion. By this point the Nubians and Assyrians had totally exhausted themselves. In 656 the son of Necho, Psamtik I, stepped into the power vacuum and peacefully reunified all of Egypt under Dynasty 26.