What Is Dynasty?

We now divide the kings into dynasties. The egyptians didn't necessarily do this themselves. So they wouldn't necessarily recognize the system that we use. It was something that was put in place right at the end of the dynastic age when the ptolemaic kings were starting to study ancient egyptian history. They wanted to understand the history of the that they were ruling, which was already really, really old. We've kept it because it's very convenient for us. On the whole, a dynasty is a family, but it's not always. It's really a group of people who are linked together by an ideal rather than by blood.