Narmer (Menes)

The first recorded king of Egypt. His name appears on the Narmer Palette.

Around 3000 BCE., Egypt emerged from the obscurity of unrecorded prehistory as one country, united under a single, divine king. Before that, it is generally assumed that the country was divided into at least two major parts : Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. According to an Ancient Egyptian legend, it was an Upper Egyptian king named Menes who first united these "Two Lands". From then on, the Egyptian kings would rule Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt and one of the many names used for the country would be "Two Lands", reflecting the original duality of Egypt. The identification of Menes with one of the archaeologically attested kings of Early Dynastic Egypt has been a matter for considerable debate among Egyptologists for quite some time and has not yet been resolved. Some identify Menes with Narmer (3300 - 3100 B.C.), others with his probable son, Aha and others yet still see him as a legendary figure. The most important document pertaining to the unification of Egypt is the Narmer Palette.
 

Horus Name There are several variants of his name (the Horus Name written within the serekh):
	Hr nar Hor Nar Horus the Catfish
	Hr nar-mr Hor Nar-mer Horus the Striking Catfish
	Hr nar-mrw Hor Nar-meru Horus the Striking Catfish
	Hr nar-mr TA Hor Nar-mer tsha Horus the Striking Catfish (meaning of additional glyph unknown)

Narmer is thought to have been buried in Tomb B17-18 at Abydos.