Where the Narmer Palette was found

If you want to see where it all started, you have to look past the famous New Kingdom temples. Nekhen was the religious and political capital of Upper Egypt back around 3200 BC. This was the original home base for the cult of Horus, the falcon god who many people think first showed up right here.

The ground here is honestly packed with history. This is where they found the Narmer Palette, which shows one of the first actual depictions of Egyptian kingship. There is also a painted tomb from roughly 3500 BC, making it one of the oldest decorated graves left in existence. At its peak, this place was a bustling hub with between 5,000 and 10,000 people before it lost its status to the rival city of Abydos.

One of the coolest structures to check out is a massive mud-brick enclosure built by King Khasekhemwy of the Second Dynasty. Researchers used to call it a fort, but it does not have any actual military features. It was likely a ritual space for kingship, built right on top of a prehistoric cemetery.

Today, people are still studying the ruins of the city, including houses and even breweries from the predynastic era. It remains a key site for figuring out how the very first Egyptian kingship actually took shape.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons