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Manetho's King List

Manetho was an Egyptian priest from Heliopollis. Under the patronage of Ptolemy I, he started to compile an Egyptian history, titled Aegyptika. It was written in Greek and finished c.271 BCE. He attempted to describe Egyptian history from its inception to Alexander the Great. His original work was lost, however, and all we know is from short transcripts and summaries done by Christian historians in later centuries. A few different translations of his work exist:

• Josephus Flavius, from the first century CE
• Sextus Julius Africanus, third century CE
• Eusebius of Cesarea, third/fourth century CE
• George Syncellos (a Byzantine historian) from the eighth century CE.

Mistakes made in translation and by copiers reduces the value of Manetho's work as historical documentation. Most of the dates simply don't match.

However, Manetho is the basis for most of our chronologies and naming conventions for Egyptian pharaohs. His king list is often referenced by egyptologists, but many of them reject the dating and time periods for the pharaohs as "fanciful" -- there seems to have been some political hay to be made by exaggerating the reigns of some of the kings and minimizing others.

The entire concept of "dynasty" comes from Manetho, who broke apart the kings into reasonably logical groups -- by location or family or other identifying feature.

1st Dynasty

2nd Dynasty

3rd Dynasty

4th Dynasty

5th Dynasty

6th Dynasty

12th Dynasty

18th Dynasty