Pharaohs

The royal titulary of the Egyptian pharaohs was the standard naming convention adopted by the kings of ancient Egypt, symbolising their supremacy and sacred power.

The knowledge to read and write hieroglyphs was lost by 450 AD, and would remain so until the 1820s, when the Rosetta Stone was deciphered. Like in Arabic and Hebrew, hieroglyphic writing does not normally indicate vowels, and use sounds not common in most European languages. Since the ancient Egyptian language has been dead for two millennia, the knowledge of how the writing was actually pronounced can only be estimated. When transcribing Egyptian words, the general rule among Egyptologists was to use the pronunciation clues provided by Coptic, otherwise they would add an ‘e’ between consonants until they got something pronounceable to European ears.

Early Egyptology was dominated by French, English and German scholars, who naturally wrote mainly in their own languages. The transcription of names was still new and was done individually by each scholar, which meant that names were read and transcribed differently. As knowledge of the Egyptian language grew, so did the names. For example, a pharaoh first known as Amuntuankh evolved into the name Tutankhamun, and is still spelt slightly differently in various languages (Toutânkhamon, Tutanchamun, Tutankamón etc).

For the sake of consistency, the hieroglyphic sun-disk ⊙ (Gardiner-sign N5), symbolising the sun-god Ra, is transliterated as Ra in these pages. Jean-François Champollion, the first to decipher hieroglyphs, used "Rê" in his transcriptions, perhaps at least partially based on the ancient Greek transliteration of pharaohs' names that often end with -res. This meant that "Re" became dominant instead of the more correct "Ra". For example, the sun sign is written as "Ra" in Ramesses, but as "Re" in Neferkare.

The fivefold royal titulary consisted of the Horus, Nebty, Golden Horus, Throne, and Birth names. It established the king's authority and legitimacy and served as a mission statement for his reign. Many pharaohs are known by only one or two of the five names, and many have yet to be assigned to the correct king. There are also several pharaohs whose names have not yet been identified.

List of the Pharaohs

The pharaohs of ancient Egypt, from predynastic times up to and including the roman emperors, who were not pharaohs as such, but are included here because some of their names were inscribed on monuments using hieroglyphs.
The chronological order of the pharaohs is difficult to determine because it has been more than 2,000 years since the last one ruled. Establishing a solid timeline in the ancient world is a very complicated matter, made all the more so by the fact that ancient records are often incomplete, contain errors or omissions, and are of questionable reliability and compatibility. Moreover, as new research is conducted, the order may be subject to change. This is a fundamental principle that applies to all Egyptian dynasties.