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Who was the first pharaoh of Egypt? Narmer, Menes and the kings before them
9 November 2026
The first pharaoh of Egypt is usually named as Narmer, a king from the south who ruled the whole Nile valley, from the delta to Aswan, around 3100 BC. The oldest list of kings, sealed in a royal tomb a few generations after him, starts with his name.
The answer comes with two catches. Egyptians writing more than a thousand years later named the first king Menes, and scholars still argue over whether Menes was Narmer or the king after him. And a few rulers before Narmer already held large parts of the country, so he was the first king of a united Egypt, not the first king.
Narmer heads the oldest list of kings
In 1985 German archaeologists found clay seal impressions in the tomb of King Den at Abydos. Rolled out from a cylinder seal, they name the kings of the 1st Dynasty in order, and the first is Narmer. A second sealing from the tomb of Qa'a, the last king of the dynasty, names all eight kings and also begins with him.
These lists were made by the royal court itself, a few generations after his reign, so they show whom the first kings counted as the founder.
The Narmer Palette shows him in both crowns
The best-known record of his reign is a shield-shaped slab of dark stone about 63 cm tall, found at Hierakonpolis in 1897 to 1898 by James Quibell and Frederick Green and now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. On one face Narmer wears the tall white crown of the south and raises a mace over a kneeling enemy. On the other he wears the red crown of the north and walks in procession towards rows of beheaded captives. Two long-necked beasts twist their necks together below, and a bull tramples a fallen enemy and breaks down a town wall.
It is the earliest picture of one king wearing both crowns, which is why it is often called the record of Egypt's unification. Many Egyptologists now read it as a statement of the king's power over chaos, made for a temple, more than a news report of one war.
His name sits at the top of both faces, inside a serekh, the palace front that held a king's Horus name. The catfish () writes nꜥr and the chisel () writes mr: Narmer.
Later Egyptians gave the title to Menes
The name Menes, mnj, written with the game board () for mn and the ripple of water () for n, heads the king lists of the New Kingdom: the Turin papyrus and the list Seti I carved in his temple at Abydos, around 1290 BC. Manetho, a priest who wrote a history of Egypt in Greek around 280 BC, made Menes the founder of the 1st Dynasty, and the Greek historian Herodotus, who calls him Min, says he built Memphis.
No monument of the 1st Dynasty names a king Menes outright. The usual view is that Menes was Narmer under another name. Others think he was Aha, the next king, perhaps Narmer's son. A seal from Abydos that sets the signs mn and n beside Narmer's serekh is read both ways.
Kings ruled before Narmer too
Egyptologists group the rulers just before Narmer as Dynasty 0. Their tombs lie in the same royal cemetery at Abydos. Iry-Hor, around 3170 BC, is the earliest Egyptian ruler known by name, and his successor Ka wrote his serekh with the raised arms (), the ka sign. A ruler called Scorpion appears on a carved macehead from Hierakonpolis, now in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, wearing the white crown.
These kings ruled large parts of the valley, and the first signs of Egyptian writing come from their time. Narmer is the first whose name turns up from one end of the country to the other, from Hierakonpolis in the south to Tarkhan near Cairo and on jars carried into Canaan.
Nobody called Narmer pharaoh
The word pharaoh comes from pr-ꜥꜣ, "great house", written with the house () for pr and the column () for ꜥꜣ, "great". For most of Egyptian history it meant the palace, not the man in it. The earliest sure use for the king himself is a letter to Akhenaten, around 1350 BC, and it was first put before a king's name, as in "Pharaoh Siamun", in the 10th century BC.
Narmer and the kings after him were called nswt, "king", written with the sedge plant (), the plant of the south. So the first pharaoh lived nearly two thousand years before anyone used the word for a king.
Sobekneferu was the first woman to rule as king
The first woman known for sure to rule Egypt as king is Sobekneferu, the last ruler of the 12th Dynasty, around 1800 BC. The Turin papyrus gives her a reign of three years and ten months, and she was the first woman to take a king's full set of names. Earlier queens such as Merneith of the 1st Dynasty may have ruled for young sons, but not as king in their own right.
Hatshepsut, three hundred years later, is the famous one. She ruled for about twenty years and left her two cartouches on temples and obelisks across Egypt.
Questions
Who was the first pharaoh of Egypt?
Narmer, who ruled a united Egypt around 3100 BC, is usually named as the first. The oldest king lists, from the 1st Dynasty itself, begin with him.
Was Menes the same person as Narmer?
Probably, though it is argued. Menes is the name later Egyptians gave the first king. The usual view identifies him with Narmer, and others with his successor Aha.
Who was the first female pharaoh?
Sobekneferu, around 1800 BC, is the first woman known for sure to have ruled as king. Hatshepsut came about three hundred years later and ruled much longer.
Who was the last pharaoh?
Cleopatra VII, who died in 30 BC, is usually named as the last. Egypt then became a province of Rome.
Glossary
- cartouche
- An oval ring drawn around a royal name, a loop of rope tied at one end. Kings wrote their two main names in cartouches.
- dynasty
- A line of kings counted together, usually one family. Egyptologists number Egypt's kings in about 30 dynasties, following the priest Manetho.
- Horus name
- The oldest of a king's names, written in a serekh under the Horus falcon. It names the king as the god Horus on earth.
- New Kingdom
- Egypt's age of empire, about 1550 to 1069 BC, the time of Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II.
- obelisk
- A tall, four-sided stone pillar with a pointed top, usually set up in pairs before a temple and carved with the king's names.
- papyrus
- A writing sheet made from strips of the papyrus reed laid in two crossing layers and pressed. Sheets were glued into long rolls.
- pharaoh
- The king of Egypt. The word comes from per-aa, "great house", a name for the palace that came to mean the king himself in the New Kingdom.
- priest
- A servant of a god in a temple, who washed, dressed and fed the god's statue each day. A high priest led the staff of a great temple.
- serekh
- A frame showing the front of a palace, with a king's Horus name written above it and the Horus falcon on top. The oldest royal names are written in serekhs.
- temple
- The house of a god, where priests served the god's statue. Temples for dead kings kept up their offerings after death.
- tomb
- A burial place: a pit, a mastaba, a pyramid or rooms cut into rock. Its chapel was where the family brought offerings.
People in this article
Where to see it
- Egyptian Museum, Cairo museum
- Abydos site
- Ashmolean Museum, Oxford museum
Sources
More to read
- How to read hieroglyphs How to read hieroglyphs: find the way the signs face, sound out the alphabet signs, spot the silent ones. A king's name read sign by sign.
- Which way do you read hieroglyphs? Which way do you read hieroglyphs? Toward the faces: birds, snakes and people look at the start of the line. Rows, columns and the odd exceptions.
- The hieroglyph alphabet: 24 signs and their sounds The hieroglyphic alphabet: the 24 one-consonant signs Egyptologists list, with the picture, the sound and how to spell an English name with them.