Hierakonpolis

25°5′50″N 32°46′46″E / 25.09722°N 32.77944°E / 25.09722; 32.77944

Nekhen (/ˈnɛkən/, Ancient Egyptian: nḫn), also known as Hierakonpolis (/ˌhaɪərəˈkɒnpəlɪs/; Greek: Ἱεράκων πόλις, romanized: Hierákōn pólis, meaning City of Hawks or City of Falcons, a reference to Horus; Egyptian Arabic: الكوم الأحمر, romanized: el-Kōm el-Aḥmar, lit. 'the Red Mound') was the religious and political capital of Upper Egypt at the end of prehistoric Egypt (c. 3200–3100 BC) and probably also during the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3100–2686 BC).

Located in Upper Egypt about 100 kilometers south of the modern-day city of Luxor, Nekhen has been the subject of extensive archeological research over the past one and half centuries, and has yielded a large number of artifacts that give a greater understanding to this period of ancient Egyptian history. The city was the center of cult worship of the god Horus, who is said to have his origins in Nekhen as its tutelary deity. Tombs, temples, breweries, houses, and other structures have all been discovered that date back to the predynastic era. The oldest known tomb with painted decoration, known as the Painted Tomb, is located in Nekhen and is thought to date to c. 3500–3200 BC. It shares distinctive imagery with artifacts from the Gerzeh culture. Nekhen was also the discovery location for the Narmer Palette, which contains one of the first depictions of ancient Egyptian kingship, in addition to an array of other artifacts from the predynastic period.

The first settlement at Nekhen dates from either the predynastic Amratian culture (c. 4400 BC) or the late Badarian culture (c. 5000 BC). At its height, from c. 3400 BC, Nekhen had at least 5,000 and possibly as many as 10,000 inhabitants. Most of Upper Egypt then became unified under rulers from Abydos during the Naqada III period (3200–3000 BCE) at the expense of rival cities, especially Nekhen (Hierakonpolis). The conflicts leading to the supremacy of Abydos may be what appear on numerous reliefs from the Naqada II period, such as the Gebel el-Arak Knife, or the frieze of Tomb 100 at Nekhen.

Nekhen was the center of the cult of a falcon deity, Horus of Nekhen, and raised one of the most ancient Egyptian temples in Egypt. It was here that the body of Horus was supposedly entombed, and Horus was often deeply connected and associated with Nekhen and Upper Egypt in general. Given Horus' vital importance in the Egyptian pantheon and for monarchical legitimacy, Nekhen retained its importance as the center for this divine patron of the kings long after the site had otherwise declined.

There are later tombs at Nekhen, dating to the Middle Kingdom, Second Intermediate Period, and New Kingdom. In the painted tomb of Horemkhauef a biographical inscription reporting a journey to the capital by him was found. He lived during the Second Intermediate Period. Because it had a strong association with Egyptian religious ideas about kingship, the temple of Horus at Nekhen was used as late as the Ptolemaic Kingdom, persisting as a religious center throughout the thousands of years of Ancient Egyptian culture.

The ruins of the city were originally excavated toward the end of the nineteenth century by the English archaeologists James Quibell and Frederick W. Green. Quibell and Green discovered the "Main Deposit", a foundation deposit beneath the temple, in 1894. Quibell originally was trained under Flinders Petrie, the father of modern Egyptology, however, he failed to follow Petrie's methods. The temple was a difficult site to excavate to begin with, so his excavation was poorly conducted and then, poorly documented. Specifically, the situational context of the items therein is poorly recorded and often, the reports of Quibell and Green are in contradiction.

John Garstang excavated at Nekhen from 1905–1906. He initially hoped to excavate the town site, but encountered difficulties working there, and soon turned his attention to the area he misidentified as a 'fort' instead. That site dates to the second dynasty King Khasekhemwy. Beneath that area, Garstang excavated a Predynastic cemetery consisting of 188 graves, which served the bulk of the city population during the late Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods, revealing the burial practices of the non-elite Egyptians living at Nekhen.