The ancient Egyptians were a civilisation that began in Egypt, Africa, the culture was founded when migrating African tribes settled along the fertile banks of the river Nile instead of crossing the Red sea into Saudi Arabia or across the Mediterranean sea into Europe as other tribes had done, the early Egyptians settled by the Nile and began raising crops and animals, they were in contact with the Mesopotamians who taught the Egyptians their style of clay brick buildings, since the Sumerian builders were already building Ziggurat pyramids they may have influenced Egyptian culture to the same ends. The Egyptian lands were devided into “Chem” or “Kemet” - “The Black Lands” of Lower Egypt at the mouth of the Nile so named because of deposits of silt giving it rich black farmable soil while the surrounding desert of barren sand known as Upper Egypt were “Deshret” - “the Red Lands”. Despite that “Deshret” refers to the Upper Red Lands, the ruler of Lower Egypt wore the red “Deshret” crown (pictured right and central within the image) while the ruler of Upper Egypt wore the white “Hedjet” crown (pictured right and then left within the image). When the two lands were combined into one kingdom the crowns were fused to a Pschent (double crown pictured to the right) in ancient Egypt this crown of the united lands was known as the “Sekhemti”. The crowns were often depicted on Pharaoh’s and deities, in particular the Deshret red crown was initially worn by the falcon-headed God Horus but was also associsted with Wadjet, Sais and Neith while the white Hedjet crown was associated with the darkness and chaos God Seth.
NOTE: There seems to be some debate (even in the images provided) as to which crown fits with which area, I am inclinded to present the information above as acedemically accurate however I will attest that it is my personal belief that the white crown belongs to lower Egypt and the red crown to upper Egypt since it makes sense for the Deshret crown to be matched to the Deshret lands.
