Khasekhemwy (flourished 27th–26th centurybce) was the last ruler ofEgypt in the2nd dynasty (c. 2730–c. 2590bce), who reigned c. 2610–c. 2593 and apparently ended the internal struggles of the mid-2nddynasty.

Khasekhemwy, whose name means “the two powers have appeared,” is the onlyking of Egypt to have selected a royal name thatcommemorates bothHorus, the god traditionally associated with the living king, andSeth, his trickster brother; the emblematic animals of both deities are depicted above hisserekh (the stylized rectangular frame in which a king’s Horus name was displayed). Some scholars have interpreted this double symbol as an indication of a civil reconciliation after internal disruptions initiated by one of Khasekhemwy’s predecessors,Peribsen, who used only Seth instead of thecanonical Horus, but there is little evidence to support such a view. Khasekhemwy built atHierakonpolis, Al-Kāb (El-Kab), andAbydos, the latter site containing his royal tomb, which was the first to use extensive stone masonry. Two seated statues in his likeness, discovered at Hierakonpolis, are adorned with figures of defeated enemies, and another relief shows him triumphant overNubia. His queen, Nimaathetep, was probably the mother or grandmother of the first kings of the 3rd dynasty, Nebka andDjoser.