The longest lasting empires in history
Ranked by how long each one lasted on this timeline, Byzantine Empire comes first at about 1,058 years (395 to 1453 CE), followed by Tu'i Tonga Empire at about 915 years and Ghana Empire (Wagadu) at about 900 years.
See it on the interactive chart
- Byzantine Empire395 to 1453 CE
- Tu'i Tonga Empirec. 950 to 1865 CE
- Ghana Empire (Wagadu)c. 300 to 1200 CE
- Kingdom of Aksumc. 100 to 960 CE
- Holy Roman Empire962 to 1806 CE
- Srivijayac. 650 to 1377 CE
- Ethiopian Empire (Solomonic dynasty)1270 to 1974 CE
- Kanem Empirec. 700 to 1387 CE
- Khmer Empire802 to 1431 CE
- Ottoman Empire1299 to 1922 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 to 1999 CE
- Oyo Empirec. 1300 to 1835 CE
- Abbasid Caliphate750 to 1258 CE
- Bornu Empirec. 1387 to 1893 CE
- New Kingdom of Egyptc. 1550 to 1069 BCE
- Parthian Empire247 BCE to 224 CE
- Middle Assyrian Empirec. 1363 to 912 BCE
- Pagan Kingdomc. 849 to 1297 CE
- Chola Empire848 to 1279 CE
- Sasanian Empire224 to 651 CE
- Roman Empire27 BCE to 395 CE
- Pala Empirec. 750 to 1161 CE
- Wari Empirec. 600 to 1000 CE
- Mali Empirec. 1235 to 1610 CE
- Kushan Empirec. 30 to 375 CE
- Greek
- Austronesian
- Niger-Congo
- Semitic
- Germanic
- Nilo-Saharan
- Austroasiatic
- Turkic
- Latin and Romance
- Arabic
- Egyptian
- Iranian
- Tibeto-Burman
- Dravidian
- Indo-Aryan
The ranking
1. Byzantine Empire
The eastern Roman Empire, centred on Constantinople, where Greek gradually replaced Latin for official use. Justinian briefly retook much of Italy, and the city withstood Arab sieges until the Ottomans took it in 1453.
2. Tu'i Tonga Empire
Sacred kings ruling from Mu'a on Tongatapu, a line tradition traces to the mythical 'Aho'eitu in the 10th century. Tongan influence peaked from 1200 to 1500, reaching Uvea, Samoa and parts of Fiji. Power passed to other lines, and the title ended in 1865.
3. Ghana Empire (Wagadu)
Soninke empire between the Senegal and Niger rivers that held a monopoly on gold heading north and salt heading south. Arab writers called it the land of gold. An Almoravid conquest in 1076 is now doubted, and the Sosso took Ghana by 1203.
4. Kingdom of Aksum
Red Sea trading power that minted its own coins and raised giant stone stelae. King Ezana adopted Christianity in the 4th century and Kaleb invaded Yemen around 520. Aksum declined from the 7th century and collapsed around 960.
5. Holy Roman Empire
Dated from Otto I's imperial coronation in 962 (some date it from 800), a decentralised empire of German, Italian and Burgundian lands under an elected emperor. The Thirty Years' War devastated it, and Francis II dissolved it in 1806.
6. Srivijaya
A Malay Buddhist empire based at Palembang that dominated much of western maritime Southeast Asia and was a centre of Buddhist learning. Chola raids in 1025 weakened it, power shifted to Jambi, and a Majapahit attack on Palembang in 1377 ended its last successor.
7. Ethiopian Empire (Solomonic dynasty)
Christian empire whose kings claimed descent from Solomon and Sheba. It survived Adal's jihad, built castles at Gondar, beat Italy at Adwa in 1896 and ended with Haile Selassie's overthrow in 1974.
8. Kanem Empire
Empire northeast of Lake Chad, ruled from Njimi by the Duguwa and from the 11th century by the Muslim Sayfawa, that controlled Saharan routes as far as the Fezzan. Around 1380 the Bilala took Njimi and the court moved west to Bornu.
9. Khmer Empire
Jayavarman II proclaimed himself universal ruler in 802. His successors built Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom and ruled or held as vassals most of mainland Southeast Asia, until in 1431, under Siamese pressure, the court left Angkor for the Phnom Penh area.
10. Ottoman Empire
From Anatolia the Ottomans crossed into Europe at Gallipoli in 1354 and ruled the Balkans for five centuries, besieging Vienna in 1529 and 1683. Defeat in 1918 led to the sultanate's abolition in 1922.
11. Portuguese Empire
Starting with the capture of Ceuta in 1415, Portugal built the first and longest-lasting European colonial empire, from Brazil to Goa, Malacca and Macau. It ended with the handover of Macau to China in 1999.
12. Oyo Empire
Yoruba empire whose cavalry forced Dahomey to pay tribute. After palace intrigue, Ilorin seceded in 1817, joined the Sokoto Caliphate, and destroyed the capital Oyo-Ile in 1835.
13. Abbasid Caliphate
Caliphs who founded Baghdad in 762 and made it a centre of learning with the House of Wisdom. After 945 real power passed to Buyid and Seljuk sultans, and the Mongols killed the last caliph of Baghdad in 1258.
14. Bornu Empire
The Sayfawa state refounded west of Lake Chad, with Ngazargamu as capital from about 1472. Idris Alooma drew on Turkish muskets and instructors. The al-Kanemi shehus held power from 1814, formally from 1846, until Rabih az-Zubayr conquered it in 1893.
15. New Kingdom of Egypt
Egypt's imperial age, ruling Nubia and Canaan under pharaohs such as Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. It faded after the Sea Peoples and the loss of its empire.
16. Parthian Empire
Arsacid dynasty founded by Arsaces I, chief of the Parni, who conquered Parthia in Iran's northeast. It destroyed Crassus's Roman army at Carrhae in 53 BCE and became a centre of trade on the Silk Road between Rome and Han China.
17. Middle Assyrian Empire
Ashur-uballit I freed Assur from Mitanni, and Tukulti-Ninurta I subjugated Babylonia. After Tiglath-Pileser I it lost most lands outside its heartland, partly to Aramean invasions, but kept its Assyrian core.
18. Pagan Kingdom
Anawrahta, who came to power in 1044, united the Irrawaddy valley and gave royal patronage to Theravada Buddhism. Pagan's rulers built over 10,000 temples before Mongol invasions from 1277 broke the kingdom, whose last king was deposed in 1297.
19. Chola Empire
Rajaraja I and Rajendra I conquered the south, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, raided the Ganges, sent a fleet against Srivijaya in 1025 and built the Brihadeeswara temple at Thanjavur. Pandya victories ended the dynasty in 1279.
20. Sasanian Empire
Persian dynasty that revived Zoroastrianism as its official religion and fought repeated wars with Rome and Byzantium. Exhausted by the war of 602 to 628, it fell to the Muslim conquest, and the last shah, Yazdegerd III, was killed in 651.
21. Roman Empire
In 27 BCE the Senate gave Octavian the title Augustus, marking him as the first emperor. The empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan and encircled the Mediterranean. Theodosius I, the last emperor to rule both East and West, died in 395.
22. Pala Empire
Gopala was chosen king by the chiefs of Bengal around 750. His successors Dharmapala and Devapala ruled Bengal and Bihar, fought for Kannauj and funded the Buddhist universities of Nalanda and Vikramashila.
23. Wari Empire
Empire of the Middle Horizon ruled from Huari near Ayacucho, with provincial centers such as Pikillacta near Cusco linked by roads. The earliest known khipu knotted cords, later used by the Inca, are attributed to the Wari.
24. Mali Empire
Mandinka empire founded by Sundiata Keita, at its peak the largest in West Africa. Mansa Musa's pilgrimage of 1324 to 1326 spent enough gold to cause inflation in Egypt, and Timbuktu, annexed in 1324, became a centre of learning.
25. Kushan Empire
Kujula Kadphises united the Yuezhi clans and his heirs ruled from the Oxus to the Ganges. Under Kanishka it sat at the hub of Silk Road trade and spread Mahayana Buddhism and Gandharan art. Sasanian Persia and the Guptas broke it up.
Major events
- Hatshepsut's expedition to Punt. Queen Hatshepsut sends a five-ship expedition down the Red Sea to Punt. Reliefs in her temple at Deir el-Bahari record the voyage and the goods brought back.
- Akhenaten founds Amarna. Pharaoh Akhenaten moves the capital to a new city at Amarna devoted to the sun disc Aten, a religious revolution reversed after his death.
- Battle of Carrhae. Parthian horse archers and cataphracts under Surena destroy the army of Marcus Licinius Crassus near Carrhae (Harran), one of the most crushing defeats in Roman history. Crassus is killed.
- Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Arminius of the Cherusci destroys three Roman legions under Varus, and Rome gives up the conquest of Germany beyond the Rhine.
- Vesuvius buries Pompeii. Mount Vesuvius erupts and buries the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum under pyroclastic surges and ash. The total number of deaths is unknown.
- Kanishka becomes Kushan emperor. Kanishka comes to the Kushan throne, on Harry Falk's dating, and rules from Gandhara to the Ganges plain. His patronage of Buddhism helped carry Mahayana Buddhism from Gandhara to China.
- Edict of Milan. Constantine and Licinius grant Christians freedom of worship across the Roman Empire.
- Aksum adopts Christianity. King Ezana of Aksum converts under the influence of the Syrian bishop Frumentius, and his coins switch from pagan symbols to the cross.
- Constantinople dedicated. Constantine dedicates his new capital on the site of Byzantium. It stays the seat of the eastern Roman Empire for over 1,100 years.
- Battle of Adrianople. Gothic rebels under Fritigern overwhelm an Eastern Roman army near Adrianople (modern Edirne) and kill Emperor Valens. The battle is often considered the start of the events that led to the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
- Justinian's Code. Emperor Justinian I promulgates the first edition of his Code, a compilation of imperial enactments, in April 529. It becomes part of the Corpus Juris Civilis, the body of Roman law enacted between 529 and 534.
- Plague of Justinian. Plague reaches Roman Egypt in 541 and Constantinople in 542, where estimates of the dead range from a fifth to 40 percent of the city. Outbreaks recur until the middle of the 8th century.
- Wari and Tiwanaku expand. Two highland polities spread their influence across the Andes, Wari through roads and administrative centers and Tiwanaku through colonies and trade.
- Battles of Yarmouk and Qadisiyyah. Arab armies crush the Byzantines at the Yarmouk River and then the Sasanians at Qadisiyyah, opening Syria and Iraq to Islamic rule.
- Yijing studies at Srivijaya. The Chinese monk Yijing spends six months at Srivijaya studying Sanskrit on his way to Nalanda in India, and records more than 1,000 Buddhist monks at Palembang.
- Founding of Baghdad. Caliph al-Mansur builds his round city on the Tigris. Within a century Baghdad is one of the largest cities in the world and home to the House of Wisdom.
- Baptism of the Rus. Vladimir I of Kiev adopts Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium and has the people of Kiev baptised in the Dnieper.
- Chola fleet raids Srivijaya. Rajendra Chola launches naval invasions of Srivijaya, sacking its capital Palembang and attacking other places in Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, a campaign described as unique in India's history.
- Chola raid on Srivijaya. Rajendra I's fleet from south India sacks Palembang, Kedah and other Srivijayan ports, breaking Srivijaya's hold on the straits.
- East-West Schism. Papal legates and the Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicate each other, splitting the Catholic and Orthodox churches.
- First Crusade proclaimed. At Clermont, Pope Urban II calls on western knights to aid Byzantium and take Jerusalem, which the crusaders capture in 1099.
- Construction of Angkor Wat begins. Under Suryavarman II, who takes the throne this year, builders begin Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world, dedicated to Vishnu.
- Nalanda sacked. Troops of Bakhtiyar Khalji plunder Bihar and burn the great Buddhist monastery of Nalanda around this time, a leading cause of its demise, though some teaching there went on for decades.
- Crusaders sack Constantinople. Knights of the Fourth Crusade and the Venetian fleet storm and loot Constantinople and divide the Byzantine Empire among themselves.
- Battle of Kirina. Sundiata Keita defeats the Sosso king Sumanguru Kante, a date often taken as the start of the Mali Empire. The battle is retold in the Epic of Sundiata.
- Mongols sack Baghdad. Hulagu's army storms Baghdad, kills the caliph al-Musta'sim and many thousands of residents, ending the Abbasid caliphate in Iraq.
- Mongols invade Pagan. Yuan armies invade Burma after earlier clashes, and the Pagan kingdom breaks apart into rival successor states.
- Mansa Musa's pilgrimage. Mansa Musa of Mali passes through Cairo on the way to Mecca with a huge entourage, and his gifts of gold are said to have lowered its value in Egypt.
- Ayutthaya sacks Angkor. Siamese armies take Angkor, and the Khmer court soon moves south toward Phnom Penh.
- Gutenberg's printing press. Johannes Gutenberg develops printing with movable metal type in Mainz. His Bible is finished around 1455.
Questions
Which empire lasted the longest?
On this timeline, Byzantine Empire, at about 1,058 years (395 to 1453 CE). Other lists differ, because how long an empire lasted depends on where its beginning and end are drawn.
What are the longest lasting empires in history?
In order on this timeline: Byzantine Empire (about 1,058 years), Tu'i Tonga Empire (about 915 years), Ghana Empire (Wagadu) (about 900 years), Kingdom of Aksum (about 860 years), Holy Roman Empire (about 844 years), Srivijaya (about 727 years), Ethiopian Empire (Solomonic dynasty) (about 704 years), Kanem Empire (about 687 years), Khmer Empire (about 629 years) and Ottoman Empire (about 623 years).
Where do these dates come from?
Each row's dates were checked against the sources listed on that row's own page, mostly English Wikipedia articles, which cite the underlying scholarship. Dates that are uncertain are marked c.