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[[File: Ancient_Egypt.png|300px|thumbnail|left| Map of Ancient Egypt and Nubia: Sais Is in the Western Delta]]__NOTOC__
Among all of ancient Egypt’s important cities, Sais, or <i>Sau</i> in the ancient Egyptian language, is perhaps the most overlooked. Memphis was the political capital for most of pharaonic history, Thebes was an important religious center in the Middle and New kingdoms, as well serving as a secondary political capital, and Alexandria became the urban focus of Egypt after the Greek Ptolemies conquered the land in the fourth century BC. But from 664 BC until the arrival of Alexander the Great in 332 BC Sais was among the most, if not <i>the</i> most important cities in Egypt. Unlike the other great Egyptian cities, though, Sais had a very different path to glory.
===Sais under the Saites===
[[File: PsamtekStela.jpg|300px|thumbnail|left|Grantie Stela of Psamtek I (ruled 664-610 BC)]]
[[File: Apries.jpg|300px|thumbnail|leftright|King Apries II (589-570 BC)]]
Beyond the limited observations done at Sais in the early nineteenth century, most of what is known about the city comes from a combination of statues and stelae recovered in other cities, a few Egyptian inscriptions, and some classical Greek accounts. The accounts mention that among the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty kings – often referred to as the “Saite Dynasty” – who built in the city, Psamtek I, Apries, and Ahmose/Amasis II (reigned 570-526 BC) were the most active. A general description by Herodotus states that the city was the home of the royal necropolis of the Saite kings, which was part of the goddess Neith’s temple complex, whom the Greeks referred to as “Athena.”
===References===
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[[Category: Ancient History]] [[Category: Ancient Egyptian History]] [[Category: Urban History]] [[Category: Religious History]]