.jpg)
While Cleopatra VII, the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, is often associated with ancient Egypt, she was actually not Egyptian by birth.
Cleopatra was of Greek descent, specifically from the Ptolemaic dynasty, which was a family of Greek origin that ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great's death.
The Ptolemaic dynasty was founded by Ptolemy I Soter, one of Alexander the Great's generals, who became the ruler of Egypt following Alexander’s conquest of the region.
The family remained Greek in culture, language, and traditions, and while they ruled over Egypt for nearly 300 years, they maintained strong ties to Greek culture and often married within their own family to keep their bloodline pure.
Cleopatra herself was born in 69 BCE in Alexandria, Egypt, but her family’s roots were firmly Greek. She was the daughter of Ptolemy XII Auletes, a Macedonian Greek, and although she became the Queen of Egypt, she was the first Ptolemaic ruler to learn the Egyptian language and embrace Egyptian customs, in order to gain favor with her subjects.
This ability to adopt Egyptian culture was one of the factors that made Cleopatra such a skilled and effective ruler, and she portrayed herself as the living embodiment of the goddess Isis to solidify her connection with the Egyptian people.
So, while Cleopatra is inextricably linked with ancient Egypt in history and popular imagination, her ancestry was Greek, and she was the product of a dynasty that had little connection to the indigenous Egyptian population.