Menes Founds First Egyptian Dynasty

Menes is the name of the Egyptian king credited with founding the First dynasty, sometime around 3100 BC. Menes was seen as a founding figure for much of the history of Ancient Egypt, and was possibly a mythical founding king similar to Romulus and Remus for Ancient Rome.

Ancient Egyptian legend credits a pharaoh by this name with uniting Upper and Lower Egypt into in a single, centralized monarchy. However, his name does not appear on extant pieces of the Royal Annals (Cairo Stone and Palermo Stone), which is a now-fragmentary king's list that was carved onto a stela sometime during the Fifth dynasty. He typically appears in later sources as the first human ruler of Egypt, directly inheriting the throne from the god Horus. He also appears in other, much later, king's lists, always as the first human pharaoh of Egypt. Two king's lists of the 19th dynasty (13th century BC) call him Meni, the 3rd century BC Egyptian historian Manetho called him Menes, and the 5th century BC Greek historian Herodotus referred to him as Min. Menes also appears in demotic novels of the Graeco-Roman Period, demonstrating that he even that late was regarded as important figure.