Who Was King Menes? Mystery Of This Legendary Ruler May Go Back 20,000 Years
A. Sutherland - AncientPages.com - The first Pharaoh in Egyptian recorded history was Menes-Narmer and his reign marks the beginning of human civilization.
As recorded on the Palermo Stone, there was a civilization prior to the present one that dated back about twenty and thirty thousand years. Our civilization was born from the destruction of the previous one. This civilization is referred to as a “lost” one.
In 1902, renowned art historian Heinrich Schafer published the first information regarding the Palermo Stone, the most important feature of which is the listing of rulers that predate Menes, the first “official” ruler of Egypt. This goes back thousands of years into the pre-dynastic period, and into what John Anthony West referred to as the Zep Tepi.

Palermo Stone - Cairo Fragment CF1 lists, among others, the start of the reign of Horus Djer. Credits: ancient-egypt.org
The reign of Menes-Narmer was chosen as the starting point because that is as far back as we can trace to the beginning of human civilization, but the identity of Pharaoh Menes-Narmer is a very complex subject.
Who Unified Upper And Lower Egypt?
No doubt, the most important event in history of ancient Egypt was the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under one rule. However, the identity of the first ruler responsible for the unification of Egypt has long been shrouded in mystery.
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