The first king of unified Egypt, who, according to tradition, joined Upper and Lower Egypt in a single, centralized monarchy. Manetho, a 3rd-century-BC Egyptian historian, called him Menes; the 5th-century-BC Greek historian Herodotus referred to him as Min; and two native-king lists of the 19th dynasty (13th century BC) call him Meni. Modern scholars have inconclusively identified the traditional Menes with one or more of the archaic Egyptian kings bearing the names Scorpion, Narmer, and Aha. In addition to crediting Menes with the unification of Egypt by war and administrative measures, tradition attributes to him the founding of the capital, Memphis, near modern Cairo. According to Greek tradition, the pharaoh founded the 1st Dynasty, c 2925 BC. To the ancient Egyptians he was the first human ruler. According to Manetho, Menes reigned 62 years and was killed by a hippopotamus.