The pharaohs established a national administration and appointed royal governors, and buildings of the central government were typically open-air temples constructed of wood or sandstone.

[citation needed] Funeral practices for the peasants would have been the same as in predynastic times, but the rich demanded more elaborate rituals.

It seems certain that Egypt became unified as a cultural and economic domain long before its first king ascended to the throne in the lower Egyptian city of Memphis.

Political unification proceeded gradually, perhaps over a period of a few centuries, as local districts established trading networks and as the ability of their governments to organize agriculture labor on a larger scale increased.

Divine kingship may also have gained spiritual momentum as the cults of gods like Horus, Set and Neith associated with living representatives became widespread in the country.

[7] In all likelihood, Naqada III saw the earliest codification of signs, where royal serekhs—a rectangular cartouche representing the niched or gated façade of a palace surmounted by the Horus falcon—are also first seen, painted on jars and impressed on their sealings.

[4] Alternative theories hold that Narmer was the final king of the Naqada III period[6] and Hor-Aha is to be identified with "Menes".

Egyptian settlement and colonization are attested from about 3200 BC onward all over the area of southern Canaan with almost every type of artifact: architecture (fortifications, embankments and buildings), pottery, vessels, tools, weapons, seals, etc.

[18][19] By the Early Dynastic Period, the Egyptian state had likely imposed its authority as far north as modern Tel Aviv and as far south as the second cataract in Nubia.