Egypt was divided into several kingdoms, which were gradually unified into two only, those of the north and the south.
The northern kingdom was symbolised by the snake and papyrus, the southern kingdom by the vulture and aloe.

The vulture was the emblem of Nekheb, the goddess of the great fortress whose ruins are now called El-Kab; and it is probable that the city of Nekhen, which stood opposite it on the western bank of the Nile, was once the capital of the south.
However this may be, when Menes mounted the throne he was hereditary ruler of This, a city which adjoined the sacred burial-place of Osiris at Abydos, and of which Girgeh is the modern successor.
Menes made himself master of the north, and so united all Egypt under one rule.

He then undertook and carried through a vast engineering work, one of the greatest the world has ever seen.

The Nile was turned aside out of its old channel under the Libyan cliffs into a new channel to the east.

The dyke which forced the river from its old course still remains, and two or three thousand years before the bed of the valley had risen to its present level the destruction of the dyke would have meant the return of the Nile to its former path.