Narmer, who may also be Menes, and Also King Scorpion (Serqet), is considered the king of the First Dynasty. This was after the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, which may or may not have been unified by Menes. However, there is a considerable amount of recorded history describing life prior to the first dynasty. This era begins somewhere between 3000 BC and 3400 BC.
Prior to that Egypt was split into two kingdoms, Upper Egypt (the southern area located on the upper end of the Nile) and Lower Egypt (the northern area located on the lower end of the Nile). This time is called the "Early Dynastic Period" in which there were several kings for each kingdom which may have lasted a couple hundred years or so prior to the first dynasty. Before this things get really uncertain. Many texts promote long lists of demigods and half gods that ruled the Egyptian area and no certain dates are known, nor how much truth is within the complex myths that ensue from this era. It is considered to last 2 millennia or longer according to the ancient texts that discuss the matter. The cool part is what happens before all of this. There is a list of 8 original rulers that is relatively consistent across a few primary texts that discuss Ancient Egypt. This was considered the legendary period. It was a time when gods ruled Egypt and much mythology is based upon. Each text (Palmero Stone, Manetho, and the Turin King list) cite 8 god kings that ruled in the beginning. Each text has separate names for these god kings, however each fill the same purposes. There may be truth in the texts outside of mythology that suggest a list of rulers that were worshiped as gods in an original unified Egypt. The first of these would probably have been Ptah (also "Vulcan" or "Hephaestus") the creator god.
Just for arguments sake, the earliest recorded documents provided are still some thousand years or more after even Menes ruled the first dynasty.
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