Egypt's kings were not called pharaoh for most of Egyptian history
We call every ruler from around 3150 BCE to 30 BCE a pharaoh, but the Egyptians themselves did not. The word originally referred to the royal administration, and the first certain use of it for a living king comes in a letter addressed to Akhenaten, well over a thousand years after the First Dynasty.
The title took hold only in the Eighteenth Dynasty, during the New Kingdom. An inscription mentioning Thutmose III, who reigned around 1479 to 1425 BCE, may use it slightly earlier, but the letter to Akhenaten, king from about 1353 to 1336 BCE, is the first confirmed case. Modern scholars nonetheless apply it backwards to every king from the First Dynasty until Rome annexed Egypt in 30 BCE. Early kings instead carried up to three formal names, the Horus name, the Sedge and Bee name and the Two Ladies name, with the Golden Horus name and a personal name added later.
The job combined state and religion. The king was the go-between linking gods and people, owned all the land, made laws, levied taxes and led the army, while also presiding over ceremonies and choosing where temples would rise. Above all he was responsible for Maat, the principle of cosmic order and justice, which could justify war, whether to defend the country or to seize resources.
Headgear told a political story. Before unification, Lower Egypt's kings wore the red Deshret and Upper Egypt's the white Hedjet; afterwards the combined double crown, the Pschent, became standard. Later dynasties added others, including the striped Nemes and the blue Khepresh.
The imagery outlasted native rule. A limestone flake from Thebes, dated about 1200 to 1080 BCE and dug up by Carnarvon and Carter in 1920, shows a king spearing a lion, with a royal hymn on the back. A sandstone block from the First Cataract, carved between 41 and 68 CE, probably under Claudius or Nero, still depicts the purification of the pharaoh.
Source: Pharaoh
