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Timeline › 2nd Dynasty

Khasekhemwy c. 2705–2686 BC

The last king of the 2nd Dynasty. He put both the Horus falcon and the Seth animal on top of his serekh, which is often read as a sign that he made peace between rival halves of the country. His tomb at Abydos is the largest of the early royal tombs, and his walled enclosure at Hierakonpolis still stands.

Horus and Seth name: Khasekhemwy

Kings this early wrote their main name in a serekh: a frame drawn as the front of a palace, with a god standing on it, usually the falcon of Horus. The cartouche took over in the 4th Dynasty.

ḫꜥ-sḫmwj: “The two powers have appeared”

Earlier in his reign he was Khasekhem, with Horus alone on top. The full form adds ḥtp nbwj jm.f, "the two lords are at peace in him".

Sign by sign

  1. Sun rising over a hill N28ḫꜥ To appear in glory, to rise (of the sun and of kings).
  2. Sekhem sceptre S42sḫm Power, might.
  3. Sekhem sceptre S42sḫm Power, might.
Now draw this serekh yourself

Where to see Khasekhemwy's name today

Museum

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford holds some of the earliest royal writing from Egypt, found at Hierakonpolis in 1897 to 1899: the Narmer and Scorpion maceheads and a seated statue of Khasekhem. Two thousand years later in date, a sandstone shrine of the Kushite king Taharqa from Kawa in Nubia stands whole in the gallery, its walls covered in his name.

Read more about Khasekhemwy

Names of gods (Ra, Amun, Ptah) are written first out of respect, even when they are read later. Dates are approximate; we follow Ian Shaw (ed.), The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000).