THE TEMPLES, SITES AND MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT EGYPT

Hierakonopolis was the first capital of the unified Egypt. The city and its suburbs flourished in the Predynastic and into the Early Dynastic Period. During this time (ca. 3600 - 2686 BC) Hierakonopolis was the religious and political capital of Upper Egypt.

The kings of Upper Egypt used the city as a base to launch the campaigns to conquer the Nile valley, uniting Upper and Lower Egypt. Hierakonopolis served as the first capital of all Egypt before king Narmer/Menes moved it to Memphis in Lower Egypt.

"Hierakonpolis" is the Greek name for the city. It was Nekhen in ancient Egyptian.

Hierakonpolis served as the cult center of the hawk god Horus of Nekhen. The kings built some of the most ancient temples in Egypt here and it retained its importance as the cult center of this divine royal patron long after it had otherwise declined. The original settlement on the site dates from the late Badarian or Naqada I. At its height around 3400 BC it had at least 5,000 and possibly as many as 10,000 inhabitants.

The ruins of the city were originally excavated towards the end of the 19th century. In the "principal deposit" of the temple of Nekhen they found important ceremonial Predynastic artifacts such as the Narmer Palette and the famous macehead bearing the name of King Scorpion.

More recently, a necropolis in the area has been further excavated by a multinational team of archaeologists, egyptologists, geologists, and other sciences. They have found the largest funerary complex yet dating from the earliest era of ancient Egypt, more than 5,000 years ago.

Inside the tombs the archaeologists found a cow's head carved from flint and the remains of seven people. They believe four of them were buried alive as human sacrifices. The remains survived despite the fact that the tombs were plundered in ancient times. The site contains some of the earliest examples of mummification found in Egypt.

The complex is thought to belong to a ruler of ancient Hierakonpolis in around 3600 BC, when it was the largest urban center on the Nile river. Egyptologists say the city extended its influence northwards defeating rival entities. The unification of Upper and Lower Egypt eventually led to the establishment of rule by the Pharaohs.

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