What was common race in Egypt about when Cleopatra lived?

The ancient Egyptians were very clear about how they saw themselves. They depicted their men consistently in their artwork as dark skinned (tanned) and their women as off-white (untanned). Nubians from Ethiopia were depicted as black or darker brown. read more

Scholars generally identify Cleopatra as of Greek and Persian ancestry, based on the fact that her Greek Macedonian family (the Ptolemaic dynasty) had intermingled with the Persian aristocracy of the time (notably including the first Cleopatra, Queen Cleopatra I Syra, wife of Ptolemy V of Egypt). read more

Cleopatra VII, often simply called “Cleopatra,” was the last of a series of rulers called the Ptolemies who ruled Egypt for nearly 300 years. She was also the last true pharaoh of Egypt. Cleopatra ruled an empire that included Egypt, Cyprus, part of modern-day Libya and other territories in the Middle East. read more