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Hey I'm new to these forums, this is my first post actually, however I've been a longtime ponderer of alternate history. Of all nations and time periods, however, one civilization in particular has always kept me highly enthralled and curious. Ancient Egypt.

Like many alternate history scenarios, this started as a what-if. What if the Ancient Egyptian Civilization, Culture, Religion, and Language, had somehow managed survive, adapt, and thrive in the current modern world?

Comments welcome!

The Thought Process

Now before ever putting pen to paper on the subject I had come to the realization that I would need to take a serious look into Egyptian History. Most importantly, the many points in their late history when they were overtaken by foreign invaders. At first I considered starting with the rebellions against the Persians during the Egyptian "Late Period" or their OTL "last gasp". However upon some research I decided that those dynasties were doomed to failure for the following reasons:

1) The 28th, 29th, and 30th Dynasties were plagued by infighting and a lack of competence to sustain a successful cultural revival.

2) Even IF the late period Dynasties had stopped their squabbling and worked towards a stronger Egypt, they would have been crushed by Alexander's Conquest.

Which brings me to my preferred option, and the one I have latched on to; Ptolemaic Egypt. Now I will openly admit, Ptolemaic Egypt is not the pure Egyptian Culture as I had outlined in my Opening Statement, however, even though the late period is more culturally pure, it is too weak, especially when matched up against Alexander.

So, this brings me to the next stage of my proposed alternate timeline. What happens in Ptolemaic Egypt to allow the Egyptian Culture to survive into the modern world? Well lets look closely at the system of rule the Ptolemies had established. First off, while they did set up a Greek ruling class, they also made a point to adopt and meld with the local Egyptian Religion and culture. For the purpose of This Timeline, we can assume that Ptolemaic Rule went mostly as it had during OTL, with the exception that the Ptolemies had a slightly stronger army than historically with a larger number of machimoi infantry and cavalry units. As a result there were a large number of professional native Egyptian troops, trained to fight in a phalanx and by Cleopatra VII's time, highly nationalistic. By 50 BC the Greeks have been declining in influence in Egypt and revolts are frequent. However, the rich educational and cultural infrastructure is in place for the Egyptian nationalists to take when the time is right.

Our Point of Departure? The Battle of Actium!
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