Dynasty:

He is considered to be the founder of the First dynasty .

History:

Narmer's name is represented phonetically by the hieroglyphic symbol for a catfish (n'r) and that of a chisel (mr). Other modern variants of his name include "Narmeru" or "Merunar", but convention uses "Narmer". Like other First Dynasty Kings, his name is a single word "The Striker" and may be a shorthand for "Horus is the Striker". The famous Narmer Palette , discovered in 1898 in Hierakonpolis and shows Narmer displaying the insignia of both Upper and Lower Egypt , giving rise to the theory that he unified the two kingdoms. Traditionally, Menes is credited with that unification and is listed as being the first pharaoh in Manetho's list of kings, so this find has caused some controversy.

Some Egyptologists believe that Menes and Narmer are in fact the same person; some hold that Menes is the same person with Horus Akha (aka. Hor-Aha) and he inherited an already unified Egypt from Narmer; others hold that Narmer began the process of unification but either did not succeed or succeeded only partially, leaving it to Menes to complete it.

Another theory said that Narmer was an immediate successor to the king who managed to unify Egypt, perhaps the King Scorpion whose name was found on a mace head also discovered in Hierakonpolis, and adopted symbols of unification that had already been in use perhaps for a generation. It should be noted that while there is extensive physical evidence of there being a pharaoh named Narmer, so far there is no evidence other than Manetho's list and from legend for a pharaoh called Menes. The King Lists recently found in Den's and Qa'a's tombs both list Narmer as the founder of their dynasty .His tomb is thought to have been comprised of two joined chambers (B17 and B18) found in the Umm el-Qa'ab region of Abydos.

Monuments:

Some very important monuments were found carried the name of Narmer in Heiraknopolis and Abydos. Among these monuments were two mace-heads of limestone which belongs to two different kings. There is also a pallet of king Narmer which is situated in the Egyptian museum in Cairo which consists of 2 sides.