One of the most important issues that still preoccupy Egyptologists is the question of how it happened that about five thousand years ago in the Nile basin emerged the first fully formed territorial state in the world. There are many hypotheses explaining this phenomenon. The most popular one holds that a small tribal state, which was established in the first half of the fourth millennium BC in the southern part of Upper Egypt expanded its territory gradually through conquests.
At the same time, in the Nile Delta existed another well organized kingdom. It was conquered by the ruler of Upper Egypt β Menes, who is described in ancient records as the creator of a unified Egyptian state.
This event echoed through the later history of Egypt. The pharaoh was always portrayed as a king of Upper and Lower Egypt, and the union of the two states became a recurrent motif in Egyptian art.
Today, Menes is most often identified as Narmer, the founder of Dynasty I. However, the latest research has indicated that in the time of his reign Egypt had already long been a unified state both in political and cultural terms.
The answer to the question of the unification process should be sought in the Nile Delta. The path that may help resolve the puzzle leads to Tell el-Farcha, the site discovered twenty-five years ago and examined by the Polish Expedition to the Eastern Nile Delta.
