The oldest known tomb with painted decoration, a mural on its plaster walls, is located in Nekhen and is thought to date to c. 3500–3200 BC.

Most of Upper Egypt then became unified under rulers from Abydos during the Naqada III period (3200–3000 BCE), at the expense of rival cities, especially Nekhen (Hierakonpolis).

[8] The conflicts leading to the supremacy of Abydos may appear on numerous reliefs of the Naqada II period, such as the Gebel el-Arak Knife, or the frieze of Tomb 100 at Nekhen (Hierakonpolis).

[1] The ruins of the city originally were excavated toward the end of the nineteenth century by the English archaeologists James Quibell and Frederick W. Green.

He initially hoped to excavate the town site, but encountered difficulties working there,[14] and soon turned his attention to the area he misidentified as a 'fort' instead.

[15] More recently, the concession was excavated further by a multinational team of archaeologists, Egyptologists, geologists, and members of other sciences, which was coordinated by Michael Hoffman until his death in 1990, then by Barbara Adams of University College London and Dr. Renee Friedman representing the University of California, Berkeley and the British Museum, until Barbara Adams's death in 2001,[16] and by Renée Friedman thereafter.

It includes figures featured in Egyptian culture for three thousand years—a funerary procession of barques, presumably a goddess standing between two upright lionesses, a wheel of various horned quadrupeds, several examples of a staff that became associated with the deity of the earliest cattle culture and one being held up by a heavy-breasted goddess.

Several interpretations of the themes and designs visible in the Nekhen fresco have been associated with a distinctly foreign artifact found in Egypt, the Gebel el-Arak Knife (c. 3500–3200 BCE), with a Mesopotamian scene described as the Master of animals, showing a presumed figure between two lions, presumed fighting scenes, or the boats.

The animals,[25][26] numbering in totality fourteen during May 2015, include a leopard, two crocodiles,[27] hippopotami, hartebeest,[25] two[27] elephants,[25] baboons, and African wildcats.

Cylinders seals at Nekhen include some of the first known scenes of an ancient Egyptian king smiting captive enemies with a mace.