🏺 New report · Egypt and the Nile

Kemet

Your Nile Valley Roots, Era by Era

For people with roots in Egypt and the Nile Valley: Egyptians, Muslim and Coptic alike, Sudanese and Nubians, the Beja of the Eastern Desert, and families of the Egyptian and Sudanese diaspora. We model your DNA against the regional core of the valley (the Neolithic farmers and the herders of the Green Sahara, the Old Kingdom individual of Nuwayrat, the Third Intermediate Period individuals of Abusir el-Meleq, the Christian Nubian series of Kulubnarti, and the modern references of the river) and non-regional outside admixture, then show which of 5 references is your closest, with an AI narrative. We also tell you, plainly, how thin the ancient Egyptian record really is.

🌾 The Neolithic of the Levant, North Africa and the Green Sahara
🏛️ The Old Kingdom, the Third Intermediate Period and Kush
🏺 Christian Nubia: 46 individuals, the best-sampled ancient Nile series
🧬 Y-DNA & mtDNA haplogroup classification
📊 7 periods, from the deep past to the Middle Ages
🤖 Results interpreted by Claude AI, in English, Arabic, French, German, Italian or Spanish

⚠️ Designed for people with roots in Egypt and the Nile Valley. Works for Egyptians (Muslim and Coptic), Nubians of southern Egypt and northern Sudan, Arabic-speaking Sudanese of the Nile, the Beja of the Eastern Desert, and for diaspora families whose DNA is mostly of the valley. If your roots are mainly in the Levant or Arabia, Ararat describes you better; for Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya see Tamazgha; for West, Central and Southern Africa and the African diaspora see Sankofa. If you are mostly of other ancestry, the fit will be poor and our Advanced Ancestry Report is a better choice. Not sure? The free Report Finder tells you.

Read this first: how thin the ancient Egyptian record is Only a handful of ancient Egyptian genomes have ever been published, all from northern and middle Egypt and from specific periods. This report uses one Old Kingdom individual (Nuwayrat, Morez Jacobs and colleagues 2025) and two Third Intermediate Period individuals (Abusir el-Meleq, Schuenemann and colleagues 2017). For the Hellenistic, Roman and later centuries there is no published Egyptian genome that meets the quality rules used here, so those sections are read through continuity and through the one well-sampled ancient Nile population, Christian Nubia (Kulubnarti in Sudan, Sirak and colleagues 2021, 46 individuals). Every copy of the report says so, in its own pages, next to the numbers. What you get is an honest measurement of how much your DNA resembles those few references, not a verdict on whether you descend from the ancient Egyptians, and nothing in it ranks populations, measures identity or says anything about what people of the past looked like.

Who it is for

Egyptians of the Delta, Cairo, Giza and the valley, Arabic-speaking and Muslim or Christian.
Copts, the Christian community of Egypt, whose liturgical language descends from the Egyptian of the pharaonic period.
Nubians of the Nile between the First Cataract and the Dongola reach: Nobiin speakers and the Danagla.
Arabic-speaking Sudanese of the river: Ja'alin, Shaigia, Batahin and Kababish references.
The Beja of the Eastern Desert between the Nile and the Red Sea, in Sudan and Eritrea.
Diaspora families from Egypt and Sudan in Europe, the Gulf, North America and elsewhere whose DNA is mostly of the valley.

1. Choose your closest reference

Pick the reference your family is closest to. Not sure, or mixed origins (one grandparent from the Delta, one from Nubia)? Choose "Let the model decide" and we compare you to every reference automatically. These references lie along one long genetic cline down the river and neighbouring ones overlap, so the result is always a closest reference, never an origin and never a statement about who you are.

Egyptian (Nile Delta and Valley)

Egypt of the Delta and the Nile Valley, Arabic-speaking: the reference combines Egyptian samples from the Delta governorates, Cairo and Giza with the Egyptian sets of the Davidski panel

Copt

Egyptian Copts, the Christian community of Egypt, whose liturgical language descends from the Egyptian of the pharaonic period; the reference includes Coptic samples from Egypt and from the Coptic community of Sudan

Nubian (Nile Valley of southern Egypt and northern Sudan)

the Nubian Nile, from the First Cataract in southern Egypt to the Dongola reach in northern Sudan: Nobiin speakers (Mahas and Halfawi) and the Danagla of the Dongola area, heirs to the kingdoms of Kerma, Napata, Meroe and Christian Makuria

Sudanese Arabic-speaking (Nile Sudan)

the Arabic-speaking groups of the Nile in Sudan: the Ja'alin and Shaigia of the river north of Khartoum, the Batahin of the Butana steppe and the Kababish of the western Kordofan desert

Beja (Eastern Desert of Sudan and Eritrea)

the Beja of the Eastern Desert between the Nile and the Red Sea, in Sudan and Eritrea: Hadendowa and Beni-Amer speakers of Beja, a Cushitic language, in the land classical sources called the country of the Blemmyes and the Medjay

🔎 Let the model decide (auto)

We detect which reference you are genetically closest to.

What your report models, era by era

🦴 Deep ancestry

The Natufian hunter-gatherers of the Levant, the Iberomaurusians of Taforalt in Morocco, the Anatolian and Iranian farmers with the Caucasus hunter-gatherers, and on the African side the forager genome of Mota in Ethiopia and the Nilotic reference: the prehistoric building blocks of every profile.

🌾 Neolithic

The Levantine farmers of Jordan, the North African farmers of Morocco, the herders of the Green Sahara at Takarkori in Libya, when the desert was grassland and lakes, and the East African Pastoral Neolithic of Kenya and Tanzania. The Nile corridor is where these worlds met.

⚱️ Bronze Age

The age of the Old and Middle Kingdoms and of Kerma in Nubia. Here the report rests on a single individual, the Old Kingdom man of Nuwayrat (Morez Jacobs and colleagues 2025), with the Levantine, Canaanite and Mesopotamian references as period proxies. One person cannot stand for a population, and the report repeats that next to the number.

🛡️ Iron Age

The Third Intermediate Period, the Kushite 25th dynasty from Napata that ruled Egypt, the Saite revival and Persian rule. The Egyptian reference is two individuals from Abusir el-Meleq (Schuenemann and colleagues 2017), with the Iron Age Levant and the Phoenicians of the Levantine coast as period proxies.

🏛️ Hellenistic and Roman era

Alexander, the Ptolemies, Alexandria as a Mediterranean city, Roman and Byzantine Egypt, and the rise of Christianity with the Coptic church. The thinnest-evidenced section of the report: no published Egyptian genome of these centuries meets the quality rules used here, so the Egyptian row is openly the earlier Abusir reference standing for continuity.

⚔️ Late Antiquity

Christian Nubia and the kingdoms of Nobatia, Makuria and Alodia, through the cemeteries of Kulubnarti and the Early Christian sites of Sudan: 46 individuals (Sirak and colleagues 2021), by far the best-sampled ancient reference in this report, with the Byzantine Levant and Aegean as period proxies.

🏰 Medieval

The Arab conquest of 641 and the spread of Arabic and Islam over centuries rather than at once, the Fatimid and Mamluk states, the Baqt treaty that left Christian Nubia independent for six hundred years more, the later Arab tribal migrations into Sudan, the Funj and Darfur sultanates, and the Nile, Red Sea and Saharan trade routes.

🌍 Non-regional outside admixture

Even for people fully of the valley, we include Levantine, Arabian, Maghrebi, Anatolian, European, West and Central African, East Asian and Amerindian proxies, so any real outside ancestry is detected honestly instead of being force-fit onto the wrong regional population.

🏺 Closest references

Which of the 5 modern references your DNA most closely resembles, ranked by distance: Egyptian, Copt, Nubian, Sudanese Arabic-speaking, Beja. They lie along one long cline and neighbouring ones overlap, so this is a closest reference and near-ties are shown as ties.

🧬 Y-DNA & mtDNA lineages

If your raw DNA file is available, we classify your paternal and maternal haplogroups in a Nile Valley context (E-M78 with its V12 and V22 branches, E-M123, J1-P58, J2, T, R1b-V88, G2a, A and B; maternal M1, the L lineages, N1, J, H, T, U6 and R0a), always as one line among thousands of ancestors.

76 reference populations

Your DNA is modelled against the ancient populations of the Nile Valley and its neighbours, the modern reference populations of the river, and non-regional outside proxies (Levantine, Arabian, Mesopotamian, Mediterranean, Sahelian and wider sources).

Amerindian proxy

Amerindian (North) proxy · Amerindian (South) proxy

Bronze Age sources

Bronze Age Levant and the Canaanites · Bronze Age Mesopotamia and inland Syria (Ebla, Bakr Awa) · East African Pastoral Neolithic reference, Bronze Age model · Han Bronze Age proxy (East Asian) · Later layer: Arabian ancestry that reached the Nile Valley after this period (Arabian Peninsula reference) · Nilotic East African reference (Dinka), Bronze Age model · Old Kingdom Egypt, Nuwayrat (one individual, c. 2700 BC) · Yoruba Bronze Age proxy (West African)

Deep ancestral sources

Anatolian Neolithic farmer · Caucasus Hunter-Gatherer (CHG, Kotias) · East African foragers (Mota, Ethiopia, c. 4500 years ago) · Han (East Asian proxy) · Iberomaurusian hunter-gatherers of Taforalt, Morocco (North African Late Paleolithic) · Iranian and Zagros Neolithic farmer (Ganj Dareh) · Natufian hunter-gatherers of the Levant (Epipaleolithic) · Nilotic East African reference (Dinka) · Steppe pastoralist (Yamnaya) · West and Central African reference (Yoruba)

Hellenistic and Roman sources

East African Pastoral Neolithic reference, Hellenistic and Roman model · Han Classical proxy (East Asian) · Hellenistic and Roman Mediterranean (Roman Greece and Aegean Anatolia) · Later layer: Arabian ancestry that reached the Nile Valley after this period (Arabian Peninsula reference), Hellenistic and Roman model · Nile Valley continuity, read through the Abusir el-Meleq reference (no published Egyptian genome of this period) · Nilotic East African reference (Dinka), Hellenistic and Roman model · Roman Levant, Lebanon · Yoruba Classical proxy (West African)

Iron Age sources

East African Pastoral Neolithic reference, Iron Age model · Han Iron Age proxy (East Asian) · Iron Age Levant (Ashkelon in Israel, Beirut and Sidon in Lebanon) · Later layer: Arabian ancestry that reached the Nile Valley after this period (Arabian Peninsula reference), Iron Age model · Nilotic East African reference (Dinka), Iron Age model · Phoenicians of the Levantine coast (Akhziv, 9th-6th c. BC) · Third Intermediate Period Egypt, Abusir el-Meleq (two individuals, c. 650 BC) · Yoruba Iron Age proxy (West African)

Late Antiquity sources

Byzantine Aegean and Anatolia · Byzantine Levant (Chhim and Ej-Jaouze, Lebanon) · Christian Nubia, Kulubnarti and the Early Christian cemeteries, Sudan (6th-10th c.) · East African Pastoral Neolithic reference, Late Antiquity model · Han Late Antiquity proxy (East Asian) · Later layer: Arabian ancestry that reached the Nile Valley after this period (Arabian Peninsula reference), Late Antiquity model · Nile Valley continuity, read through the Abusir el-Meleq reference (Late Antiquity model) · Nilotic East African reference (Dinka), Late Antiquity model · Yoruba Late Antiquity proxy (West African)

Medieval sources

Arabian Peninsula reference for the Arab expansion · Christian Nubia, Kulubnarti, Sudan (Medieval model) · Early Islamic Syria (Tell Qarassa and Tell Masaikh) · East African Pastoral Neolithic reference, Medieval model · Han Medieval proxy (East Asian) · Medieval southern Arabia (Soqotra, Yemen) · Nile Valley continuity, read through the Abusir el-Meleq reference (Medieval model) · Nilotic East African reference (Dinka), Medieval model · Ottoman-era Anatolia · Ottoman-era Balkans (Sirmium, Serbia) · Sahelian West Africans (Mandinka reference for the Nile and Saharan trade routes) · Yoruba Medieval proxy (West African)

Modern Nile Valley communities

Beja (Eastern Desert of Sudan and Eritrea) · Copt · Egyptian (Nile Delta and Valley) · Nubian (Nile Valley of southern Egypt and northern Sudan) · Sudanese Arabic-speaking (Nile Sudan)

Neolithic sources

East African Pastoral Neolithic (Kenya and Tanzania) · Green Sahara herders, Takarkori, Libya (Pastoral Neolithic) · Han Neolithic proxy (East Asian) · Iranian and Mesopotamian Neolithic farmers (Ganj Dareh reference, non-regional proxy) · Levantine Neolithic farmers, Jordan PPNB · Nilotic East African reference (Dinka), Neolithic model · North African farmers of the Early Neolithic, Ifri n'Amr ou Moussa, Morocco · North African farmers of the Middle and Late Neolithic, Kelif el Boroud, Morocco · Yoruba Neolithic proxy (West African)

Regional hosts

Anatolian and South European host · Arabian host (Saudi, Yemeni, Gulf) · Levantine host (Palestinian, Jordanian, Syrian, Lebanese) · Maghrebi host (Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian) · NW European

How it works, and its limits

🔬 How to read your results (please read)

Your result is computed by genetic similarity (Global25): we place your DNA in a 25-dimension genetic space and find the mixture of reference populations that best reproduces your profile, era by era. The reference populations use G25 coordinates built from published ancient-DNA studies and modern reference samples; none of our reference data is simulated.

The ancient Egyptian record is very thin, and this is the central limit of this report: one Old Kingdom individual, two Third Intermediate Period individuals, and nothing published for the Hellenistic, Roman and later centuries that meets the quality rules used here. The Christian Nubian series of Kulubnarti, with 46 individuals, is the one well-sampled ancient population available, so it often fits more tightly than the Egyptian references do. Read every Egyptian era percentage as what the model could build from very few references.

We report published findings only as what a named study reported about the individuals it sampled. Schuenemann and colleagues (2017) reported that the Abusir el-Meleq individuals they sampled were closer to the Levantine populations of their comparison than the modern Egyptians they compared them with, and also that they found substantial continuity with modern Egyptians. Morez Jacobs and colleagues (2025) reported on one Old Kingdom individual from Nuwayrat. Those are findings about specific sampled people from specific places and periods. They are not verdicts about the ancient Egyptians as a whole, and this report attaches no ancestry figure to any living population: the only percentages in it are your own.

Genetics is not identity: this report is not a national, ethnic, religious or political determination. It never tells you that you are, or are not, an ancient Egyptian; it does not measure how Egyptian, Arab, Nubian or African anyone is; it does not rank populations or communities; and it says nothing about what people of the past looked like. "Egyptian", "Nubian", "Arab", "Beja", "Coptic" and "Nilotic" are labels of geography, language, culture or faith, not genetic categories.

Ancestry arriving from along the Nile and ancestry arriving from Arabia are both ordinary parts of the history of this valley, moving in both directions over thousands of years by the river, the Red Sea and the desert roads. The report never presents either as foreign, as dilution or as something to be explained away.

Free check · no email needed

Is Kemet right for your DNA?

Paste your G25 coordinates or drop your raw DNA file. We run the same fit test as our free Report Finder, for Kemet only, and show you your verdict, your regional core and your 3 closest communities before you spend anything.

Click or drop your raw DNA file here 23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage, FTDNA, LivingDNA or a chip VCF (Genotek, Atlas): .txt, .csv, .vcf, .zip or .gz

A raw file takes 1 to 3 minutes: we first estimate your G25 coordinates from it.

🔒 Your file is processed for this check only and immediately deleted.

⚠️ Designed for people with roots in Egypt and the Nile Valley (including the diaspora). If you are mostly of other ancestry, the models are calibrated for fully-regional profiles and the fit will be poor.

Get your Kemet report

Select your closest reference above, then confirm your email. We send you a secure link to upload your DNA (raw file or G25 coordinates) and generate your personalised report.

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📖 What is raw DNA & G25?

Explore these populations in our free Population Genetics Atlas

No DNA file needed. Each free page shows a population's ancient make-up, its closest modern and ancient neighbours, and ancient DNA from the same country when we have some.

See the North Africa section of the atlas Browse the full atlas (335 populations)

Frequently asked questions

Who is the Kemet report for?

It is built for people with roots in Egypt and the Nile Valley: Egyptians, Muslim and Coptic alike, Nubians of southern Egypt and northern Sudan, Arabic-speaking Sudanese of the river, the Beja of the Eastern Desert, and the Egyptian and Sudanese diaspora. For the Levant and Arabia the Ararat report fits better, for the Maghreb Tamazgha, and for other ancestry the Advanced Ancestry Report.

Does it tell me whether I descend from the ancient Egyptians?

No, and no honest test can. Only a handful of ancient Egyptian genomes have been published, all from northern and middle Egypt and from specific periods: this report uses one Old Kingdom individual and two Third Intermediate Period individuals. It shows how much your DNA resembles those few references, and it says plainly where the evidence stops. It never tells you that you are, or are not, an ancient Egyptian, and it does not measure how Egyptian anyone is.

How many ancient Egyptian genomes does the report actually use?

Three. One man from Nuwayrat of the Old Kingdom period, published by Morez Jacobs and colleagues in 2025, and two individuals from the cemetery of Abusir el-Meleq of the Third Intermediate Period, published by Schuenemann and colleagues in 2017. For the Hellenistic, Roman and later periods there is no published Egyptian genome meeting the quality rules used here, so those sections are read through continuity and through the far better sampled Christian Nubian series of Kulubnarti in Sudan (Sirak and colleagues 2021, 46 individuals). The report states this on every copy, next to the numbers.

What did those studies actually find?

We report them only as what each study reported about the individuals it sampled. Schuenemann and colleagues (2017) reported that the Abusir el-Meleq individuals they sampled were closer to the Levantine populations of their comparison than the modern Egyptians they compared them with, and also that they found substantial continuity with modern Egyptians. Morez Jacobs and colleagues (2025) reported on a single Old Kingdom individual from Nuwayrat. Those are findings about specific people from specific cemeteries and periods, not verdicts about the ancient Egyptians as a whole. This report attaches no ancestry percentage to any living population: the only percentages in it are yours.

Does it measure how Arab or how African I am?

No. It measures resemblance to reference populations, not identity, and it never ranks populations or communities. Ancestry arriving from Arabia and ancestry arriving from along the Nile are both ordinary parts of the history of this valley, moving in both directions over thousands of years by the river, the Red Sea and the desert roads. "Arab", "Nubian", "Beja" and "Coptic" are labels of language, culture or faith, not genetic categories.

I am Nubian or Sudanese. Is the southern valley covered properly?

Yes, and in one respect better than Egypt: the Christian Nubian series of Kulubnarti is the best-sampled ancient population in the whole report, so the Late Antique and medieval sections of a Nubian or Sudanese profile rest on far more data than the Egyptian Bronze and Iron Age sections do. The panel includes Nubian (Nobiin and Danagla), Sudanese Arabic-speaking (Ja'alin, Shaigia, Batahin, Kababish) and Beja references.

Not sure it fits me. Can I check first?

Yes. The free Report Finder reads your raw DNA file (or your G25) and tells you honestly whether Kemet is a good match for you, before you spend anything. People of the Horn of Africa, the Levant, Arabia and the Maghreb sit genetically close to parts of this panel, so the Report Finder is worth running if your family is from those regions.

Do I need to have taken a DNA test already?

Yes. Upload your raw DNA file from 23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage, FamilyTreeDNA or LivingDNA, or paste your G25 coordinates.

How much does it cost and what do I get?

€15. A full PDF report with your regional core %, non-regional outside admixture breakdown, seven period-by-period breakdowns, closest modern reference populations, Y-DNA and mtDNA haplogroups (if raw file provided), and a narrative interpreted by Claude AI, in English, Arabic, French, German, Italian or Spanish.

A DNA report for Egyptian and Nile Valley ancestry

Kemet is a G25 ancestry report built specifically for people with roots in Egypt and the Nile Valley. Upload your raw DNA file from 23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage or FamilyTreeDNA, pick your closest reference, and we model your genome against the regional core of the valley plus non-regional outside admixture, era by era, from the deep past to the Middle Ages.

Whether your family is Egyptian from the Delta or the valley, Coptic, Nubian from the Nile between the cataracts, Sudanese from the river north of Khartoum, or Beja from the Eastern Desert, Kemet models the genetic layers of the region's history: the first farmers of the Levant and North Africa, the herders of the Green Sahara, the Egypt of the Old Kingdom and the Kerma of Nubia, the Third Intermediate Period and the Kushite dynasty, Hellenistic and Roman Egypt with the rise of the Coptic church, Christian Nubia and its kingdoms, and the medieval centuries of Arabic, Islam and the river roads.

The report uses the Global25 (G25) system developed by geneticist Davidski, placing your DNA in a 25-dimension genetic space alongside ancient and modern reference populations built from published ancient-DNA studies. It is explicit about the limits of that evidence for Egypt: three ancient Egyptian genomes, two periods, and no coverage at all of the Hellenistic, Roman and later centuries.

👁 Sample reports

See three real Kemet reports

Full example reports, flip through every page: cover, regional core, the seven periods, closest references and the AI narrative.

PDF

🇪🇬 Egyptian sample

An Egyptian profile from the Delta and the valley: the Neolithic background, the Old Kingdom and Abusir el-Meleq references, the medieval layers and the closest references of the panel.

PDF

✝️ Coptic sample

A Coptic profile: the same seven periods read against the Egyptian ancient references, with the report's honest account of what two and three ancient genomes can and cannot show.

PDF

🏺 Nubian sample

A Nubian profile of the southern valley: the Nilotic and East African references, the well-sampled Christian Nubian series of Kulubnarti, and the medieval river roads.