A nome (pron.: //; from Greek: Νομός, “district”) was a
subnational administrative division of ancient Egypt. Today's
use of the Greek nome rather than the Egyptian term sepat came
about during the Ptolemaic period. Fascinated with Egypt, Greeks
created many historical records about the country. These were
more accessible to later Western historians and influenced their
adoption of Greek terms. Ancient Egypt  The division of ancient
Egypt into nomes can be traced back to the Predynastic Period
(before 3100 BC). These nomes originally existed as autonomous
city-states, but later began to unify. According to ancient
tradition, the ruler Menes completed the final unification. Not
only did the division into nomes remain in place for more than
three millennia, the areas of the individual nomes and their
ordering remained remarkably stable. Some, like Xois in the
Delta or Khent in Upper Egypt, were first mentioned on the
Palermo stone, which was inscribed in the Fifth Dynasty. The
names of a few, like the nome of B