The Ogdoad Gods were worshipped by the ancient Egyptian theologians of Hermopolis. The eight Gods of the Ogdoad are generally presented in four divine pairings, with a masculine and feminine counterpart. Isis and Osiris are the odd ones out on this occasion, because they are drawn from the Ennead school of theology.

While all of these options name rulers of the first dynasty, Qu'a was the last ruler of the dynasty. Qu'a directly succeeded Semerkhet, and Menes was the first, rather than the last, ruler of the first dynasty.

Menes was one of the earliest, possibly the earliest Pharaohs in unified Egyptian history. Most historians credit Menes with uniting Upper and Lower Egypt and founding the First Dynasty of the Old Kingdom. Other historians disagree with this hypothesis though and instead credit Narmer with founding the Old Kingdom of Egypt.

At the pinnacle of Ancient Egypt’s power structure were the ruling dynastic families, each of whom were led by a sequence of pharaohs. (These dynasties are comparable to Medieval Western European royal houses.) Each dynasty ruled in turn before being somehow either replaced or overthrown by another dynasty. Most often, each dynasty was internally bound together by familial ties, both blood- and marriage-related, although in several cases (usually in the absence or unsuitability of direct heirs) dynasties were formed on the basis of shared residency within the fortified royal compound. Despite these close ties, however, internal dynastic conflicts erupted rather often; disputes frequently arose over the line of succession and physical violence (including assassination) was not uncommon.

It is impossible to fully understand the leaders of Ancient Egypt without first comprehending the crucial relationship that existed between these pharaohs and the Egyptian deities. The pharaohs’ role as the nation’s top-ranking political figure was deeply intertwined with religious beliefs. Each pharaoh was believed to be the son of the sun god Ra, who endowed each ruler with various divine abilities and charged his royal offspring with preserving the balance between the Egyptians and the entire divine pantheon. As such, the pharaohs were revered both politically and religiously; for a citizen of Ancient Egypt, to oppose a pharaoh was not only to oppose one’s political ruler but also involved challenging the child of a greatly powerful deity.

The oldest known example of Egyptian hieroglyphics can be found on several memorial palettes, which were created to eulogize and memorialize the dead. These palettes have been dated back to 3400 BCE. Historians have been able to trace the development of hieroglyphic writing from this starting date and have discovered that hieroglyphics remained in continual use until around the eleventh century CE. This lifespan of over four thousand years makes Egyptian hieroglyphics the longest-utilized language in known history.

There are more than 700 different hieroglyphs, which are pictographic in nature. Some may have began as early wall paintings. They took the form of animals, weapons, nature and food to name a few.

The Egyptians believed that their land consisted of two, distinct regions — Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt — which had been united by King Menes. The rulers of Lower Egypt typically wore a red crown to represent their dominion over Lower Egypt; and the rulers of Upper Egypt typically wore a white crown to represent their dominion over Upper Egypt. Many Pharaohs, of course, wore a red and white crown to represent their dominion over unified Egypt.

According to legend (details are scarce since Menes is estimated to have lived around 3100 BCE), Menes ruled for just over 60 years, until he was killed by a hippopotamus.

For centuries, Upper and Lower Egypt were two separate social and political entities, divided by the many branches of the Nile River and its surrounding Delta plains. The historical record of the unification is murky and filled with inconsistencies, half-truths, and possible legends. In all likelihood, in 3100 BCE, the King Mena (sometimes also known as Narmer) unified the two areas, most likely through military force (either threatened or actually deployed). Mena consolidated his rule over both the Upper and Lower regions by erecting a new capital city, named Memphis, right along the border between the two previously separated locales. Ancient symbolic depictions of this unification portray Upper Egypt as a reed of papyrus and Lower Egypt as a Nile waterlily, often bound together by each plants’ lower tendrils.