"Menes was seen as a founding figure for much of the history of 
ancient Egypt... 1st Dynasty started with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt by the almost legendary king Menes.
While the archaeological record does not mention Menes, this
approximately coincides with the appearance of the first recognizable
royal names in contemporary written sources. The issue of the identification of Menes aside, the first king to be prominently present in the available source material is Horus Narmer. Two of his named predecessors, Horus Ka and Horus “Mouth” (or Iri-Hor) have been attested in Middle and Lower Egypt, but apparently not in the south of the country.
Menes may simply be Narmer's honorific title.
Menes means "He who endures."
Narmer was the first king of Egypt who united the villages up and 
down
the Nile. Under his rule, Upper and Lower Egypt came together and formed
the first nation in history. Naturally, a nation needs a central place
where the bureaucracy takes place. Therefore, the capital was
established at Memphis in the north of Egypt, roughly 15 miles from
modern-day Cairo.
King “Scorpion” is often assumed to have been either a
predecessor or a rival of Narmer, but may, in fact, have been none other
than Narmer himself!
The chief archaeological reference to Menes is an ivory label from Naqada which shows the royal Horus-name Aha (the pharaoh Hor-Aha) next to a building, within which is the royal nebty-name mn, generally taken to be Menes....during Narmer's reign and symbols 
such as the Ankh (symbol of life), and
the Djed pillar (a four-tiered pillar that represents stability) became
popular. New astronomical instruments were developed during this time
as well.
Diodorus Siculus recorded a story of Menes related by the priests of the crocodile god Sobek at Crocodilopolis, in which the pharaoh Menes, attacked by his own dogs while out hunting, fled across Lake Moeris on the back of a crocodile and, in thanks, founded the city of Crocodilopolis.
Menes reigned for 62 years and was killed by a hippopotamus."
GreatCoursesDaily/AncientEgyptSite/wiki/KEA
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