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Admin moved page How Did Psamtek I Save Ancient Egypt? to How Did Psamtek I Save Ancient Egypt
[[File: MET_PsamtekI.jpg|300px250px|thumbnail|left|Bust of Psamtek I in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York]]__NOTOC__
Psamtek I (ruled 664-610 BC), often referred by his Greek name Psammetichus, is considered one of ancient Egypt’s greatest kings because he saved the civilization from centuries of cultural decline and foreign rule. Beginning in the middle of the Twentieth Dynasty, around 1150 BC, Egypt began a long yet steady decline where it first lost its imperial possessions and then was overcome by a series of Libyan invasions and migrations.
===The Saite Dynasty===
[[File: Third_Intermediate_Period_map.png|300px250px|thumbnail|left|Political Map of Egypt during the Third Intermediate Period: Sais Was Ruled by the Libyan “Chiefs of the West”]]
Psamtek I is generally considered to be the father of Egypt’s Twenty-Sixth Dynasty, which is often referred to as the “Saite Dynasty” and the kings as “Saites” because they hailed from the Delta city of Sau – Greek “Sais.” In a somewhat ironic turn of history, the Saites were descended from Libyan tribes known as the Libu, who infiltrated the western Delta in the ninth century BC. By the early eighth century, the tribal leaders established a power base in Sais and began referring to themselves as the “Great Chiefs of the West” and the “Great Chiefs of the Libu,” but not as Egyptian kings. <ref> Kuhrt, Amélie. <i>The Ancient Near East: c. 3000-330 BC.</i> (London: Routledge, 2010), p. 628</ref> But the Libu gradually became Egyptianized and their leaders began assuming Egyptian royal titles and prerogatives.
