The Twenty-fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt was a short-lived group of pharaohs who had their capital at Sais in the western Nile Delta. This dynasty is often considered part of the Third Intermediate Period.
Tefnakhte I formed an alliance of the kinglets of the Delta, with whose support he attempted to conquer Upper Egypt; his campaign attracted the attention of the Nubian king Piye, who recorded his conquest and subjection of Tefnakhte of Sais and his peers in a well-known inscription. Tefnakhte is always called the "Great Chief of the West" in Piye's Victory Stela and in two stelas dating to the regnal years 36 and 38 of Shoshenq V.
Tefnakhte's successor, Bakenrenef, assumed the throne of Sais and took the royal name Wahkare. His authority was recognised in much of the Delta including Memphis where several Year 5 and Year 6 Serapeum stelas from his reign have been found. This Dynasty came to a sudden end when Shabataka, the third king of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, attacked Sais prior to his Year 3, captured Bakenrenef and burned him alive.
After the waning centralised rule of the 22nd Dynasty in Lower Egypt and the 23rd Dynasty in Upper Egypt, local kinglets throughout Egypt began ruling their territories independently (much like the emerging 24th Dynasty centred at Sais).
Even though the numbering the dynasties comes from Manetho, whose 24th dynasty refers specifically to the early Saite kinglets whose descendents would go on to found the 26th and 28th dynasties, given the current understanding of this chaotic time period, the 24th dynasty could be conveniently used as an umbrella term for all the local kinglets throughout Egypt.
Dated prior to the 26th Dynasty. His rule is placed between the time of Piye's conquest of Egypt and the Assyrian invasion under Esarhaddon and then Ashurbanipal in 666 BC.[1] Alternatively, Padinemty may have ruled at Hermopolis instead.[2]
