A nome (, from , ''nomós'', "district") was a territorial division in
ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...
.
Each nome was ruled by a
nomarch (, "Great Chief"). The number of nomes changed through the various periods of the
history of ancient Egypt.
Etymology
The term ''nome'' comes from
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
νομός ''nomós'' meaning "pasture" extended to "dwelling" and "district"; the
Ancient Egyptian
Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...
term was ( /sɛpɑt/).
Today's use of the Ancient Greek rather than the
Ancient Egyptian
Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...
term came about during the
Ptolemaic period, when the use of Greek was widespread in Egypt. The availability of Greek records on Egypt influenced the adoption of Greek terms by later historians.
History
Dynastic Egypt

The division of ancient Egypt into nomes can be traced back to
prehistoric Egypt
Prehistoric Egypt and Predynastic Egypt was the period of time starting at the first human settlement and ending at the First Dynasty of Egypt around 3100 BC.
At the end of prehistory, "Predynastic Egypt" is traditionally defined as the period ...
(before
3100 BC). These nomes originally existed as autonomous city-states, but later began to unify. According to ancient tradition, the ruler
Menes completed the final unification.
Not only did the division into nomes remain in place for more than three millennia, the areas of the individual nomes and their ordering remained remarkably stable. Some, like
Xois in the
Nile Delta
The Nile Delta (, or simply , ) is the River delta, delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's larger deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the eas ...
or
Khent in
Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt ( ', shortened to , , locally: ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel North. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake N ...
, were first mentioned on the
Palermo Stone, which was inscribed in the
Fifth Dynasty. The names of a few, like the nome of
Bubastis, appeared no earlier than the
New Kingdom. Under the system that prevailed for most of pharaonic Egypt's history, the country was divided into 42 nomes.
Lower Egypt nomes
Lower Egypt
Lower Egypt ( ') is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, the Nile River split into sev ...
(Egyptian: "Ā-meḥty"), from the Old Kingdom capital
Memphis to the
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...
, comprised 20 nomes. The first was based around Memphis,
Saqqara, and
Giza, in the area occupied by modern-day
Cairo
Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
. The nomes were numbered in a more or less orderly fashion south to north through the Nile Delta, first covering the territory on the west before continuing with the higher numbers to the east. Thus,
Alexandria
Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
was in the Third Nome;
Bubastis was in the Eighteenth.
#White Walls Nome
#Travellers land
#Cattle land
#Southern shield land
#Northern shield land
#Mountain bull land
#West harpoon land
#East harpoon land
#Andjety god land
#Black bull land
#Heseb bull land
#Calf and Cow land
#Prospering Sceptre land
#Eastmost land
#Ibis-Tehut land
#Fish land
#The throne land
#Prince of the South land
#Prince of the North land
#Sopdu-Plumed Falcon land
Upper Egypt nomes
Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt ( ', shortened to , , locally: ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel North. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake N ...
was divided into 22 nomes. The first of these was centered on
Elephantine
Elephantine ( ; ; ; ''Elephantíne''; , ) is an island on the Nile, forming part of the city of Aswan in Upper Egypt. The archaeological site, archaeological digs on the island became a World Heritage Site in 1979, along with other examples of ...
close to Egypt's border with
Nubia
Nubia (, Nobiin language, Nobiin: , ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the confluence of the Blue Nile, Blue and White Nile, White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), and the Cataracts of the Nile, first cataract ...
at the
First Cataract – the area of modern-day
Aswan. From there the numbering progressed downriver in an orderly fashion along the narrow fertile strip of land that was the Nile valley. Waset (ancient
Thebes or contemporary
Luxor
Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt. Luxor had a population of 263,109 in 2020, with an area of approximately and is the capital of the Luxor Governorate. It is among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited c ...
) was in the Fourth Nome,
Amarna in the Fourteenth, and
Meidum in the Twenty-first.
#Bows land
#Throne of Horus land
#Shrine land
#Sceptre land
#The two falcons land
#The crocodile land
#Sistrum land
#The Great land
#Min-God land
#Cobra land
#Sha-Set animal land
#Viper mountain land
#Upper Sycamore and Viper land
#Lower Sycamore and Viper land
#Hares land
#
Oryx Nome
#Anubis land
#Set land
#Two Sceptres land
#Southern Sycamore land
#Northern Sycamore land
#Knife land
Ptolemaic Egypt
Some nomes were added or renamed during the Graeco-Roman occupation of Egypt.
For example, the Ptolemies renamed the
Crocodilopolitan nome to Arsinoe.
Hadrian
Hadrian ( ; ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in Spain, an Italic peoples, Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his branch of the Aelia gens, Aelia '' ...
created a new nome, Antinoopolites, for which
Antinoöpolis was the capital.
Roman Egypt
The nomes survived into
Roman times. Under Roman rule, individual nomes minted their own coinage, the so-called "nome coins", which still reflect individual local associations and traditions. The nomes of Egypt retained their primary importance as administrative units until the fundamental rearrangement of the bureaucracy during the reigns of
Diocletian
Diocletian ( ; ; ; 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed Jovius, was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Diocles to a family of low status in the Roman province of Dalmatia (Roman province), Dalmatia. As with other Illyri ...
and
Constantine the Great
Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...
.
From AD 307/8, their place was taken by smaller units called ''
pagi''. Eventually powerful local officials arose who were called pagarchs, through whom all patronage flowed. The pagarch's essential role was as an organizer of tax-collection. Later the pagarch assumed some military functions as well. The pagarchs were often wealthy landowners who reigned over the ''pagi'' from which they originated.
Nomarch
For most of the history, each nome was headed by a
nomarch. The position of the nomarch was at times hereditary, while at others they were appointed by the
pharaoh. Generally, when the national government was stronger, nomarchs were the king's appointed governors. When the central government was weaker, however—such as during foreign invasions or civil wars—individual nomes would assert themselves and establish hereditary lines of succession.
Conflicts among these different hereditary nomarchies were common, most notably during the
First Intermediate Period, a time that saw a breakdown in central authority lasting from the 7th–11th Dynasties which ended when one of the local rulers became strong enough to again assert control over the entire country as pharaoh.
List of nomes
The nomes ( , ) are listed in separate tables for "Isti" - "the two Egypts" (
Upper and
Lower Egypt
Lower Egypt ( ') is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, the Nile River split into sev ...
).
Note:
# older or other variants of the name in square brackets '
;
# names vary from different time or era, or even titles, most epithets, honorific titles with a slash '/';
#Greek-Egypto derived names from the original Egyptian in parentheses '()'
Lower Egypt
Upper Egypt
References
Citations
BIbliography
* .
* .
*
Helck, Wolfgang (1974). ''Die altägyptischen Gaue''
he Ancient Egyptian Nomes Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients, Beihefte, vol. B 5. Wiesbaden: Ludwig Reichert, (with chapters on all known individual nomes).
External links
Details of the nomes
{{Ancient Egypt topics
Geography of ancient Egypt
Government of the Ptolemaic Kingdom
Roman Egypt