Decline of ancient Egyptian religion 30th Dynasty, the last native ruling dynasty of ancient Egypt, and indeed the last native rulers of the country for over 2,000 years, enabled Egyptian culture, religion, and art to flourish. Nectanebo I, the founder of this dynasty, became an accomplished builder. He worked on temples across the country and is responsible for initiating construction at the site of Philae. His grandson, Nectanebo II (who succeeded him after leading a military coup against the designated successor Teos), improved on this legacy and further established the dynasty as a time during which Egyptian culture thrived. The latter Nectanebo was thoroughly involved
Ancient Egyptian race controversy was presented in some statuary in the idealized Egyptian style, she was unlikely to have dressed like this outside of performing certain rites; instead Cleopatra "wore the headband and robes of a Greek monarch." Stacy Schiff concurs, Cleopatra was not dark-skinned, that "the Ptolemies were in fact Macedonian Greek, which makes Cleopatra approximately as Egyptian as Elizabeth Taylor", that her Ptolemaic relatives were described as "honey skinned", that she was part Persian, and that "an Egyptian mistress is a rarity among the Ptolemies." (Additionally, it interesting to note that Cleopatra's son with Mark Antony, Alexander Helios, was engaged to a