Khasekhemwy

Early in his reign the pharaoh appears as Khasekhem, "the power has appeared", with the falcon of Horus alone above his name. Later he took the name Khasekhemwy, "the two powers have appeared", and placed both Horus and Seth above the serekh, something no other pharaoh did. A fuller form adds that the two lords are at peace in him. Most Egyptologists believe that Khasekhem and Khasekhemwy were one and the same ruler and that the change of name marked the end of the conflict between the followers of Horus and of Seth and the reunification of Egypt.

Stone vessels from Hierakonpolis, the old royal city of Upper Egypt, are inscribed with the words "fighting the northern enemy within Nekheb". The bases of two seated statues of the pharaoh from the same site show the bodies of slain enemies, with a count of the dead in the tens of thousands. Egyptologists link these records with a campaign against rebels in the north, probably in the Delta, perhaps the conflict that ended the division of the country. The image of the pharaoh triumphing over his enemies would remain a central theme of royal art for nearly three thousand years.

Two seated statues of Khasekhemwy were found at Hierakonpolis. One, of limestone, is in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the other in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Both show the pharaoh wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt and the cloak of the Sed festival. They are among the earliest royal statues of this size and quality, and they announce the great sculpture of the Old Kingdom.

Khasekhemwy was a great builder. At Hierakonpolis he built a large mud-brick enclosure, often called the "Fort", and granite door elements with his Horus-and-Seth name come from the temple of Horus there. He also built in stone at El-Kab. At Abydos he raised the Shunet ez-Zebib, a huge funerary enclosure of mud brick whose walls still stand to a great height today. He may also have begun the vast enclosure known as Gisr el-Mudir at Saqqara. His use of stone on a larger scale prepared the way for the step pyramid of his successor Djoser.

Khasekhemwy's wife was Queen Nimaathap, perhaps a princess from Lower Egypt whose marriage helped to seal the reconciliation of the two halves of the country. Seals from the reign of Djoser call her "mother of the king", and most Egyptologists think that she was the mother of Djoser, the first pharaoh of the Third Dynasty, and of his wife Hetephernebty. Other pharaohs of the early Third Dynasty, such as Sanakht, Sekhemkhet and Khaba, may also have been sons of Khasekhemwy, but this is uncertain.

Khasekhemwy was buried at Umm el-Qa'ab in Abydos, in Tomb V, the last and largest royal tomb of this cemetery. It is trapezoidal, about 70 metres long and 10 to 17 metres wide, with 58 rooms. Its central burial chamber is built of dressed limestone and was long considered the oldest stone building in the world. Although robbed in antiquity, the tomb still held a sceptre of gold and sard, small stone vessels with lids of gold leaf, copper tools and vessels, pottery, grain and fruit.

Khasekhemwy closed the Second Dynasty and the whole Early Dynastic period. He restored the unity of Egypt, reconciled Horus and Seth in his name, built on a new scale and left a stable state to his successor. With Djoser and the step pyramid at Saqqara, the age of the pyramids, the Old Kingdom, began.