Upper Egypt

Upper Egypt (Arabic: صعيد مصر Ṣaʿīd Miṣr, shortened to الصعيد, Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: , locally: ; Coptic: ⲙⲁⲣⲏⲥ, romanized: Mares) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south.

In ancient Egypt, Upper Egypt was known as tꜣ šmꜣw, literally “the Land of Reeds” or “the Sedgeland”. It is believed to have been united by the rulers of the supposed Thinite Confederacy who absorbed their rival city states during the Naqada III period (c. 3200–3000 BC), and its subsequent unification with Lower Egypt ushered in the Early Dynastic period. Upper and Lower Egypt became intertwined in the symbolism of pharaonic sovereignty such as the Pschent double crown. Upper Egypt remained as a historical region even after the classical period.

Geography

Upper Egypt is between the Cataracts of the Nile beyond modern-day Aswan, downriver (northward) to the area of El-Ayait, which places modern-day Cairo in Lower Egypt. 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 Sai’idi Egyptian Arabic.

History

Predynastic Egypt

The main city of prehistoric Upper Egypt was Nekhen. The patron deity was the goddess Nekhbet, depicted as a vulture.

By approximately 3600 BC, Neolithic Egyptian societies along the Nile based their culture on the raising of crops and the domestication of animals. Shortly thereafter, Egypt began to grow and increase in complexity. A new and distinctive pottery appeared, related to the Levantine ceramics, and copper implements and ornaments became common. Mesopotamian building techniques became popular, using sun-dried adobe bricks in arches and decorative recessed walls.

In Upper Egypt, the predynastic Badari culture was followed by the Naqada culture (Amratian), closely related to the Nubian and Northeastern African populations, and the Proto-dynastic kings emerged from the Naqada region. Excavations at Hierakonpolis (Upper Egypt) found archaeological evidence of ritual masks similar to those used further south of Egypt, and obsidian linked to Ethiopian quarry sites. According to bioarchaeologist Nancy Lovell, the morphology of ancient Egyptian skeletons gives strong evidence that “In general, the inhabitants of Upper Egypt and Nubia had the greatest biological affinity to people of the Sahara and more southerly areas” but exhibited local variation in an African context.

These cultural advances paralleled the political unification of towns of the upper Nile River, or Upper Egypt, while the same occurred in the societies of the Nile Delta, or Lower Egypt. This led to warfare between the two new kingdoms. During his reign in Upper Egypt, King Narmer defeated his enemies on the delta and became sole ruler of the two lands of Upper and Lower Egypt, a sovereignty which endured throughout Dynastic Egypt.

Dynastic Egypt

In royal symbolism, Upper Egypt was represented by the tall White Crown Hedjet, the flowering lotus, and the sedge. Its patron deity, Nekhbet, was depicted by the vulture. After unification, the patron deities of Upper and Lower Egypt were represented together as the Two Ladies, to protect all of the ancient Egyptians, just as the two crowns were combined into a single pharaonic diadem.

For most of Egypt’s ancient history, Thebes was the administrative center of Upper Egypt. After its devastation by the Assyrians, the importance of Egypt declined. Under the dynasty of the Ptolemies, Ptolemais Hermiou took over the role of the capital city of Upper Egypt.

Medieval Egypt

In the eleventh century, large numbers of pastoralists, known as Hilalians, fled Upper Egypt and moved westward into Libya and as far as Tunis. 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.

20th-century Egypt

In the twentieth-century Egypt, the title Prince of the Sa’id (meaning Prince of Upper Egypt) was used by the heir apparent to the Egyptian throne.

Although the Kingdom of Egypt was abolished after the Egyptian revolution of 1952, the title continues to be used by Muhammad Ali, Prince of the Sa’id.

List of rulers of prehistoric 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		May be read Sekhen rather than Ka. Possibly the immediate predecessor of Narmer.	c. 3100 BC
Scorpion II		Potentially read Serqet; possibly the same person as Narmer.	c. 3150 BC
Narmer		The king who combined Upper and Lower Egypt.	c. 3150 BC

List of nomes

Number	Ancient Name	Capital	Modern Capital	Translation	God
1	Ta-khentit	Abu / Yebu (Elephantine)	Aswan	The Frontier/Land of the Bow	Khnemu
2	Wetjes-Hor	Djeba (Apollonopolis Magna)	Edfu	Throne of Horus	Horus-Behdety
3	Nekhen	Nekhen (Hierakonpolis)	al-Kab	Shrine	Nekhebet
4	Waset	Niwt-rst / Waset (Thebes)	Karnak	Sceptre	Amun-Ra
5	Harawî	Gebtu (Coptos)	Qift	Two Falcons	Min
6	Aa-ta	Iunet / Tantere (Tentyra)	Dendera	Crocodile	Hathor
7	Seshesh	Seshesh (Diospolis Parva)	Hu	Sistrum	Hathor
8	Ta-wer	Tjenu / Abjdu (Thinis / Abydos)	al-Birba	Great Land	Onuris
9	Min	Apu / Khen-min (Panopolis)	Akhmim	Min	Min
10	Wadjet	Djew-qa / Tjebu (Antaeopolis)	Qaw al-Kebir	Cobra	Hathor
11	Set	Shashotep (Hypselis)	Shutb	Set animal	Khnemu
12	Tu-ph	Per-Nemty (Hieracon)	At-Atawla	Viper Mountain	Horus
13	Atef-Khent	Zawty (Lycopolis)	Asyut	Upper Sycamore and Viper	Apuat
14	Atef-Pehu	Qesy (Cusae)	al-Qusiya	Lower Sycamore and Viper	Hathor
15	Wenet	Khemenu (Hermopolis)	Hermopolis	Hare	Thoth
16	Ma-hedj	Herwer?	Hur?	Oryx	Horus
17	Anpu	Saka (Cynopolis)	al-Kais	Anubis	Anubis
18	Sep	Teudjoi / Hutnesut (Alabastronopolis)	el-Hiba	Set	Anubis
19	Uab	Per-Medjed (Oxyrhynchus)	el-Bahnasa	Two Sceptres	Set
20	Atef-Khent	Henen-nesut (Heracleopolis Magna)	Ihnasiyyah al-Madinah	Southern Sycamore	Heryshaf
21	Atef-Pehu	Shenakhen / Semenuhor (Crocodilopolis, Arsinoë)	Faiyum	Northern Sycamore	Khnemu
22	Maten	Tepihu (Aphroditopolis)	Atfih	Knife	Hathor