Upper Egypt

Thinis

Nekhen

Thebes

Naqada

Map of Upper Egypt showing important sites that were occupied during the Protodynastic Period of Egypt (clickable map)

Upper Egypt (Arabic: صعيد مصر‎ Saʿīd Miṣr, shortened to الصعيد es-Ṣeʿīd<span style="margin="2px">/es-Ṣaʿīd  pronounced [es.sˤe.ˈʕiːd, es.sˤɑ.ˈʕiːd], Coptic: ⲙⲁⲣⲏⲥ) is the strip of land, on both sides of the Nile valley, that extends between Nubia, and downriver (northwards) to Lower Egypt.

Geography

Upper Egypt is between the Cataracts of the Nile above modern-day Aswan, downriver (northwards) to the area between Dahshur and El-Ayait, which is south of modern-day Cairo. The northern (downriver) part of Upper Egypt, between Sohag and El-Ayait, is also known as Middle Egypt.

In Arabic, inhabitants of Upper Egypt are known as Sa'idis and they generally speak Sa'idi Arabic.

In Pharaonic times, Upper Egypt was known as Ta Shemau^[1] which means "the land of reeds."^[2] It was divided into twenty-two districts called nomes.^[3] The first nome was roughly where modern-day Aswan is and the twenty-second was at modern Atfih (Aphroditopolis), just to the south of Cairo.

History

Hedjet, the White Crown of Upper Egypt

Predynastic Egypt

The main city of predynastic Upper Egypt was Nekhen (Hierakonpolis in Greek),^[4] whose patron deity was the vulture goddess Nekhbet.^[5]

By about 3600 BC, neolithic Egyptian societies along the Nile River had based their culture on the raising of crops and the domestication of animals.^[6] Shortly after 3600 BC Egyptian society began to grow and advance rapidly toward refined civilization.^[7] A new and distinctive pottery, which was related to the pottery in the Southern Levant, appeared during this time. Extensive use of copper became common during this time.^[7] The Mesopotamian process of sun-dried bricks, and architectural building principles—including the use of the arch and recessed walls for decorative effect—became popular during this time.^[7]

Concurrent with these cultural advances, a process of unification of the societies and towns of the upper Nile River, or Upper Egypt, occurred. At the same time the societies of the Nile Delta, or Lower Egypt also underwent a unification process.^[7] Warfare between Upper and Lower Egypt occurred often.^[7] During his reign in Upper Egypt, King Narmer defeated his enemies on the Delta and merged both the Kingdom of Upper and Lower Egypt under his single rule.^[8]

Dynastic Egypt

For most of pharaonic Egypt's history, Thebes was the administrative center of Upper Egypt. After its devastation by the Assyrians, its importance declined. Under the Ptolemies, Ptolemais Hermiou took over the role of Upper Egypt's capital city.^[9] Upper Egypt was represented by the tall White Crown Hedjet, and its symbols were the flowering lotus and the sedge.

Medieval Egypt

In the 11th century, large numbers of pastoralists, known as Hilalians, fled Upper Egypt and moved westward into Libya and as far as Tunis.^[10] It is believed that degraded grazing conditions in Upper Egypt, associated with the beginning of the Medieval Warm Period, were the root cause of the migration.^[11]

20th-century Egypt

In the 20th-century Egypt, the title Prince of the Sa'id (meaning Prince of Upper Egypt) was used by the heir apparent to the Egyptian throne.^{[Note 1]}

Although the Egyptian monarchy was abolished in 1953, the title continues to be used by Muhammad Ali and Hereditary Chief, Sheikh Beja Khawr al`allaqi, Prince of Sa'id.

List of Pharaohs of the Predynastic Period of Upper Egypt

The following list may not be complete (there are many more of uncertain existence):

Name	Image	Comments	Dates
Elephant			End of 4th millennium BC
Bull			4th millennium BC
Scorpion I		Oldest tomb at Umm el-Qa'ab had scorpion insignia	c. 3200 BC?
Iry-Hor		Possibly the immediate predecessor of Ka.	c. 3150 BC?
Ka[13][14]		May be read Sekhen rather than Ka. Possibly the immediate predecessor of Narmer.	c. 3100 BC
King Scorpion		Potentially read Serqet; possibly the same person as Narmer.	c. 3150 BC
Narmer		The king who combined Upper and Lower Egypt.[15]	c. 3150 BC

List of nomes

Map of Upper Egypt with its historical nomes

Number	Egyptian Name	Capital	Modern Capital	Translation
1	Ta-Seti	Abu / Yebu (Elephantine)	Aswan	Land of the bow
2	Wetjes-Hor	Djeba (Apollonopolis Magna)	Edfu	Throne of Horus
3	Nekhen	Nekhen (Hierakonpolis)	al-Kab	Shrine
4	Waset	Niwt-rst / Waset (Thebes)	Karnak	Sceptre
5	Herui	Gebtu (Coptos)	Qift	The two falcons
6	Aa-ta	Iunet / Tantere (Tentyra)	Dendera	The crocodile
7	Seshesh	Seshesh (Diospolis Parva)	Hu	Sistrum
8	Abdju	Abdju (Abydos)	al-Birba	Great land
9	Min	Apu / Khen-min (Panopolis)	Akhmim	Min
10	Wadjet	Djew-qa / Tjebu (Aphroditopolis)	Edfu	Cobra
11	Set	Shashotep (Hypselis)	Shutb	The creature associated with Set
12	Tu-ph	Hut-Sekhem-Senusret (Antaeopolis)	Qaw al-Kebir	Viper mountain
13	Atef-Khent	Zawty (z3wj-tj, Lycopolis)	Asyut	Upper Sycamore and Viper
14	Atef-Pehu	Qesy (Cusae)	al-Qusiya	Lower Sycamore and Viper
15	Wenet	Khemenu (Hermopolis Magna)	al-Ashmunayn	Hare[16]
16	Ma-hedj	Herwer?	Hur?	Oryx[16]
17	Anpu	Saka (Cynopolis)	al-Kais	Anubis
18	Sep	Teudjoi / Hutnesut (Alabastronopolis)	el-Hiba	Set
19	Uab	Per-Medjed (Oxyrhynchus)	el-Bahnasa	Two Sceptres
20	Atef-Khent	Henen-nesut (Herakleopolis Magna)	Ihnasiyyah al-Madinah	Southern Sycamore
21	Atef-Pehu	Shenakhen / Semenuhor (Crocodilopolis, Arsinoe)	Madinat al-Fayyum	Northern Sycamore
22	Maten	Tepihu (Aphroditopolis)	Atfih	Knife

See also

• Sa'idi people
• Upper and Lower Egypt
• Geography of Egypt

Further reading

• Edel, Elmar (1961) Zu den Inschriften auf den Jahreszeitenreliefs der "Weltkammer" aus dem Sonnenheiligtum des Niuserre Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, OCLC 309958651, in German.

Notes

1. The title was first used by Prince Farouk, the son and heir of King Fouad I. Prince Farouk was officially named Prince of the Sa'id on 12 December 1933.^[12]

References

1. Ermann & Grapow (1982), Wb 5, 227.4-14
2. Ermann & Grapow (1982), Wb 4, 477.9-11
3. The Encyclopedia Americana Grolier Incorporated, 1988, p.34
4. Bard & Shubert (1999), p. 371
5. David (1975), p. 149
6. Roebuck (1966), p. 51
7. Roebuck (1966), pp. 52–53
8. Roebuck (1966), p. 53
9. Chauveau (2000), p. 68
10. Ballais (2000), p. 133
11. Ballais (2000), p. 134
12. Brice (1981), p. 299
13. Rice (1999), p. 86
14. Wilkinson (1999), pp. 57f
15. Shaw (2000), p. 196
16. Grajetzki (2006), pp. 109–111

Bibliography

• Ballais, Jean-Louis (2000). "Conquests and land degradation in the eastern Maghreb". In Graeme Barker & David Gilbertson. Sahara and Sahel. The Archaeology of Drylands: Living at the Margin. Vol. 1, Part III. London: Routledge. pp. 125–136. ISBN 978-0-415-23001-8.
• Bard, Katheryn A.; Shubert, Steven Blake (1999). Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-18589-0.
• Brice, William Charles (1981). An Historical Atlas of Islam. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 90-04-06116-9. OCLC 9194288.
• Chauveau, Michel (2000). Egypt in the Age of Cleopatra: History and Society Under the Ptolemies. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-3597-8.
• David, Ann Rosalie (1975). The Egyptian Kingdoms. London: Elsevier Phaidon. OCLC 2122106.
• Ermann, Johann Peter Adolf; Grapow, Hermann (1982). Wörterbuch der Ägyptischen Sprache [Dictionary of the Egyptian Language] (in German). Berlin: Akademie. ISBN 3-05-002263-9.
• Grajetzki, Wolfram (2006). The Middle Kingdom of ancient Egypt: History, Archaeology and Society. London: Duckworth Egyptology. ISBN 978-0-7156-3435-6.
• Rice, Michael (1999). Who's Who in Ancient Egypt. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-15449-9.
• Roebuck, Carl (1966). The World of Ancient Times. New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons Publishing.
• Shaw, Ian (2000). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280458-7.
• Wilkinson, Toby A. H. (1999). Early Dynastic Egypt. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-18633-1.

External links

• Media related to Upper Egypt at Wikimedia Commons