Menes

Menes was a pharaoh of the first dynasty of ancient Egypt. He lived ca. 3100-3000 BC. He brought together Upper and Lower Egypt to make an empire. He wore the Pschent or double crown: the white crown of Upper Egypt and the red crown of Lower Egypt. He built the city of Memphis and made it the capital.

There is a lot of archeological evidence that there was a pharaoh named Narmer, but little evidence for a pharaoh named Menes.^[1] It is now believed that Menes was either Narmer, the pharaoh before Narmer, or Hor-Aha, who ruled after him.

More than 2000 years later Manetho, an Egyptian historian, wrote that Menes ruled for 62 years and was killed by a hippopotamus.

An image of Menes holding an ankh is on the frieze on the south wall of the U.S. Supreme Court building.^[2]

1. ↑ Gardiner, Alan. Egypt of the Pharaohs. p. 405. Oxford University Press, 1961
2. ↑ "Courtroom Friezes: North and South Walls: Information Sheet." Supreme Court of the United States. [1] Archived 2008-05-09 at the Wayback Machine