Menes: The First Pharaoh of Kemet

​According to the Turin King-List gods and goddesses rued upper and lower Kemet before the uniting of the lands by the first human ruler, Pharaoh Menes. He was the first ruler of the first dynasty of Kemet which is said to have begun between 3200 – 3000 B.C. and he ruled around sixty years. During the unification of upper and lower Kemet Menes founded the city of Men-nofre which served as the first capital of Kemet, and was located on the Nile Delta. Menes or Narmar is said to have inherited the ruler ship of Kemet from Heru the Falcon headed God. The name Narmar is associated with Menes because of the archeological findings of a seal that displays the name Narmar followed by the letters MN; MN is often thought to identify the Pharaoh Menes. The ruler of upper and lower Kemet wore a crown that was a combination of the red crown which was wore by the ruler of lower Kemet, and the white crown which was wore by the ruler of upper Kemet. Menes is identified as the first ruler to wear the Hedjet or the double crown.

Kemet was unified when Menes led his army to victory over the army of lower Kemet, and it is also stated that Menes married one of the women of importance of lower Kemet; these actions allowed Menes to become the sole ruler of the land. The City of Memphis was originally named Men-nofre which means “the home of the soul of Ptah.” Men-nofre or Memphis was located in the center of the White Kingdom on the West side of the Nile River, it was built within the flood plains of the Nile; Menes built a dam to redirect the flow of the flood waters away from the city. The locations of the city allowed it to take advantage of the fertile soil caused by the annual flooding of the Nile. A story that is widely considered a myth states that Menes was attacked by his dog while in his boat hunting, he fell into the Nile and was saved by a crocodile, and this led to the founding of the city corcodilopolis. Menes and other nobles of Kemet were buried in mastaba tombs located at Saqqara, an ancient Kemetian burial ground. Menes or Narmar was able to create a dynastic period of Kemet that would last from around 3200 BC until around 332 BC. Even tough every dynasty of Kemet was not an African led dynasty; Menes helped to create a culture that would literally give civilization, technology, mathematics, astronomy, the medical field and so much more to the world. Pharaoh Menes, we proudly stand on your shoulders.

 

J.A. Ward

​References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menes

http://kingtutone.com/pharaohs/menes/

​http://www.ancient-egypt.org/who-is-who/m/menes.html