Meryibre Khety c. 2160–2150 BC
Meryibre Khety ruled from Herakleopolis and is often taken as the founder of the 9th Dynasty, perhaps the king Manetho calls Achthoes, though some scholars place him in the 10th. A copper brazier with his name, from a tomb near Abydos, is in the Louvre, and an ebony wand from Meir is in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The length and dates of his reign are unknown.
Throne name: Meryibre
mry-ib-rꜥ: “Beloved of the heart of Ra”
Sign by sign
- Sun N5rꜥ The sun, the sun god Ra. Day.
- Hoe (variant) U6mr To love, as in mry-Jmn 'beloved of Amun'.
- Flowering reed M17i The sound i.
- Flowering reed M17i The sound i.
- Heart F34ib Heart, mind.
Birth name: Khety
ḫty
Also written Kheti or Akhtoy. Several Herakleopolitan kings bore this name.
Sign by sign
- Placenta Aa1ḫ The sound ḫ.
- Bread loaf X1t The sound t. Also the feminine ending.
- Flowering reed M17i The sound i.
- Flowering reed M17i The sound i.
Where to see Meryibre Khety's name today
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
The Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square holds some of the most important inscribed objects in Egypt, from the Narmer Palette, with one of the first royal names, to the Merneptah Stela, with the first mention of Israel. You can follow the script here from its beginnings to long New Kingdom texts.
MuseumLouvre, Paris
The Louvre's Department of Egyptian Antiquities, mostly in the Sully wing, holds a whole Old Kingdom tomb chapel, the cartouches of several kings on one sphinx and a painted stela you can read sign by sign. Champollion himself was its first curator.
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).