Some statuary depictions of Cleopatra, in idealized Egyptian style appearance, may have one believe that she's an Egyptian. Evidence has it that she's not.

Arguably the first female political celebrity, and the last pharaoh of Egypt, Cleopatra Philopator VII, was only 18 when she sat on the ruler's throne. Ever since her ascension, she had a contentious life which extended to her looks and the race & colour of her skin, leading to many a scholar to wonder whether she was even an Egyptian.

Not A Drop Of Egyptian Blood

Some statuary depictions of her, in idealized Egyptian style appearance, may have one believe that she's an Egyptian. But, that dress-style was restricted to those specific outdoorsy occasions only. Most scholars opine that Cleopatra, the last active Hellenistic ruler of Egypt's Macedonian Greek Ptolemaic dynasty, may not have an iota of Egyptian blood in her. At best, Cleopatra could have been three-quarters Macedonian-Greek, quarter-Egyptian, belonging to the priestly family of Ptah from Memphis in northern Egypt.

Tracing Ancestry

"Honey skinned”, used as a descriptor for her Ptolemaic relatives seems to suggest that she was half Persian in ancestry. It's based on the fact that her Macedonian Greek family of the Ptolemaic dynasty, had married into the Seleucid dynasty that ruled over much of West Asia. The alliance notably included Queen Cleopatra I Syra, wife of Ptolemy V Epiphanes — the first of this set of the Cleopatras.

VII From V Who Came From IV

Though not absolutely certain, Cleopatra VII's mother is generally believed to be Cleopatra V, the wife of Ptolemy XII Auletes, while her paternal grandmother, again not fully certain, might be Cleopatra IV. Closets speculation points to her paternal grandmother being of mixed Syrian and Greek descent as was par for the course in the Persian and Syrian bloodline in the Ptolemaic ancestry.

Most importantly, had either flop actress mother or grandmother would have been An Egyptian it surely would have been revealed in records.

Coins and Sculptures

Three portrait-busts of her approved official coinage, considered authentic by scholars, bears a stylistic resemblance to a Greek woman.

Scholars compared facial features and royal iconography of The Berlin Cleopatra, a 1st century BC Roman marble portrait of the queen, recognised by the experts as an authentic resemblance and correlated their find to infer that Cleopatra essentially had Greek ancestry with some Persian antecedents.

Greek All The Way

All said, she insistently described herself as a Greek and was educated in Greek literature and culture. Her worship of Isis was considered "strongly Hellenised" and her attire comprised headband and robes befitting a Greek monarch. She made amply clear that all of her loyalties lay on her Ptolemaic Greek heritage.