The book presents a critical evaluation of the sources relating to the end of the Ramesside period in Egypt. The events which led to the fall of the Ramessides can be compared only with the twilight of the Tuthmosides under the last rulers of the XVIIIth Dynasty, and to some extent also with the end of the XIXth Dynasty, when usurpers and other powers behind the throne played a dominant role. If the crisis of the monarchy at the end of the XVIIIth and XIXth Dynasties was finally overcome, with the result that new ruling families started a fresh policy of revival, the decline of the XXth Dynasty marked the end of the glorious epoch of the New Kingdom and the devastating collapse of political and social order in Egypt.