Pharaoh

The word pharaoh comes from an Egyptian term meaning ‘great house’. It first referred to the royal palace and came to be used for the king himself only from the Eighteenth Dynasty, in the New Kingdom; scholars today use it for every ruler of Egypt from the First Dynasty (about 3150 BCE) until Rome annexed Egypt in 30 BCE. The king owned all the land of Egypt, made laws, collected taxes and commanded the army; he also officiated at religious ceremonies, chose the sites of new temples, and was responsible for maintaining Maat, the order, balance and justice of the cosmos. His image carries a fixed set of signs. The white crown of Upper Egypt and the red crown of Lower Egypt were combined into the double crown, which stood for his rule over the whole of unified Egypt; the striped head cloth called the nemes is the most common royal headdress. The rearing cobra worn on the head, the uraeus, stands for the protection of the goddess Wadjet. The crook and flail were originally attributes of the god Osiris and became insignia of royal authority. The king’s name is written inside an oval called a cartouche. Pharaoh: King of Egypt, organised by the

Start with the head: a tall crown or a striped head cloth, and is there a cobra on it? Then look for an oval cartouche enclosing hieroglyphs.