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The direct answer is that in modern Egyptian geographical terms, they came from central Egypt. In ancient historical terms, from "Upper Egypt".

First off, I need to address a misconception in the question. Modern Egyptians mostly speak Arabic, but the Egyptian language spoken by the Ancient Egyptians was not Semitic. It was part of another branch of the Afroasiatic language family (and lives on today only in the "dead" liturgical language of Coptic). Here's a very rough map showing the various branches' distributions at 500BC (prior to the Muslim/Arab Conquests).

The first pharoes of the dynastic period in Egypt appear to have hailed from upper Egypt (roughly the smack dab in the middle of what is modern Egypt). Archeologically, the precursor to Ancient Dynastic Egypt is called the Naqauda culture after the excavation site, which is a smidge further up the Nile, but still in the middle of modern Egypt. This site goes back to 4000 BC. Prior to that for a few hundred years in this same area was the Badari Culture. The latter was the first Neolithic (farming) culture in that area. So your best bet for the original home of Egyptian culture is in that general vicinity. However, there were even earlier cereal-based proto-agricultural societies further south (upriver) in what is now modern Southern Egypt and extreme Northern Sudan^*, and was in ancient times known as Nubia.

If you want to go further back than that, we have to talk about the proto-Afroasiatic people. There are several disparate theories for where their original homeland was, including the Levant, the Horn of Africa, North Africa, and the Sahel.

Personally, I think the Horn of Africa theory is the most compelling because evidence from multiple disciplines points there, but I've certainly ended up wrong on such things before.

^{* - In absence of any good scholarly information on what peoples this society was composed of, I think Nilosaharans the most likely theory.}

The direct answer is that in modern Egyptian geographical terms, they came from central Egypt. In ancient historical terms, from "Upper Egypt".

First off, I need to address a misconception in the question. Modern Egyptians mostly speak Arabic, but the Egyptian language spoken by the Ancient Egyptians was not Semitic. It was part of another branch of the Afroasiatic language family (and lives on today only in the "dead" liturgical language of Coptic). Here's a very rough map showing the various branches' distributions at 500BC (prior to the Muslim/Arab Conquests).

The first pharaohs of the dynastic period in Egypt appear to have hailed from upper Egypt (roughly the smack dab in the middle of what is modern Egypt). Archeologically, the precursor to Ancient Dynastic Egypt is called the Naqauda culture after the excavation site, which is a smidge further up the Nile, but still in the middle of modern Egypt. This site goes back to 4000 BC. Prior to that for a few hundred years in this same area was the Badari Culture. The latter was the first Neolithic (farming) culture in that area. So your best bet for the original home of Egyptian culture is in that general vicinity. However, there were even earlier cereal-based proto-agricultural societies further south (upriver) in what is now modern Southern Egypt and extreme Northern Sudan^*, and was in ancient times known as Nubia.

If you want to go further back than that, we have to talk about the proto-Afroasiatic people. There are several disparate theories for where their original homeland was, including the Levant, the Horn of Africa, North Africa, and the Sahel.

Personally, I think the Horn of Africa theory is the most compelling because evidence from multiple disciplines points there, but I've certainly ended up wrong on such things before.

^{* - In absence of any good scholarly information on what peoples this society was composed of, I think Nilo-Saharans the most likely theory.}

The direct answer is that in modern Egyptian geographical terms, they came from central Egypt. In ancient historical terms, from "Upper Egypt".

First off, I need to address a misconception in the question. Modern Egyptians mostly speak Arabic, but the Egyptian language spoken by the Ancient Egyptians was not Semitic. It was part of another branch of the Afroasiatic language family (and lives on today only in the "dead" liturgical language of Coptic)

The first pharoes of the dynastic period in Egypt appear to have hailed from upper Egypt (roughly the smack dab in the middle of what is modern Egypt). Archeologically, the precursor to Ancient Dynastic Egypt is called the Naqauda culture after the excavation site, which is a smidge further up the Nile, but still in the middle of modern Egypt. This site goes back to 4000 BC. Prior to that for a few hundred years in this same area was the Badari Culture. The latter was the first Neolithic (farming) culture in that area. So your best bet for the original home of Egyptian culture is in that general vicinity. However, there were even earlier cereal-based proto-agricultural societies further south (upriver) in what is now modern Southern Egypt and extreme Northern Sudan^*, and was in ancient times known as Nubia.

If you want to go further back than that, we have to talk about the proto-Afroasiatic people. There are several disparate theories for where their original homeland was, including the Levant, the Horn of Africa, North Africa, and the Sahel.

Personally, I think the Horn of Africa theory is the most compelling because evidence from multiple disciplines points there, but I've certainly ended up wrong on such things before.

^{* - In absence of any good scholarly information on what peoples this society was composed of, I think Nilosaharans the most likely theory.}

The direct answer is that in modern Egyptian geographical terms, they came from central Egypt. In ancient historical terms, from "Upper Egypt".

First off, I need to address a misconception in the question. Modern Egyptians mostly speak Arabic, but the Egyptian language spoken by the Ancient Egyptians was not Semitic. It was part of another branch of the Afroasiatic language family (and lives on today only in the "dead" liturgical language of Coptic). Here's a very rough map showing the various branches' distributions at 500BC (prior to the Muslim/Arab Conquests).

The first pharoes of the dynastic period in Egypt appear to have hailed from upper Egypt (roughly the smack dab in the middle of what is modern Egypt). Archeologically, the precursor to Ancient Dynastic Egypt is called the Naqauda culture after the excavation site, which is a smidge further up the Nile, but still in the middle of modern Egypt. This site goes back to 4000 BC. Prior to that for a few hundred years in this same area was the Badari Culture. The latter was the first Neolithic (farming) culture in that area. So your best bet for the original home of Egyptian culture is in that general vicinity. However, there were even earlier cereal-based proto-agricultural societies further south (upriver) in what is now modern Southern Egypt and extreme Northern Sudan^*, and was in ancient times known as Nubia.

If you want to go further back than that, we have to talk about the proto-Afroasiatic people. There are several disparate theories for where their original homeland was, including the Levant, the Horn of Africa, North Africa, and the Sahel.

Personally, I think the Horn of Africa theory is the most compelling because evidence from multiple disciplines points there, but I've certainly ended up wrong on such things before.

^{* - In absence of any good scholarly information on what peoples this society was composed of, I think Nilosaharans the most likely theory.}

First off, I need to address a misconception in the question. Modern Egyptians mostly speak Arabic, but the Egyptian language spoken by the Ancient Egyptians was not Semitic. It was part of another branch of the Afroasiatic language family (and lives on today only in the "dead" liturgical language of Coptic)

The first pharoes of the dynastic period in Egypt appear to have hailed from upper Egypt (roughly the smack dab in the middle of what is modern Egypt). Archeologically, the precursor to Ancient Dynastic Egypt is called the Naqauda culture after the excavation site, which is a smidge further up the Nile, but still in the middle of modern Egypt. This site goes back to 4000 BC. Prior to that for a few hundred years in this same area was the Badari Culture. The latter was the first Neolithic (farming) culture in that area. So your best bet for the original home of Egyptian culture is in that general vicinity. However, there were even earlier cereal-based proto-agricultural societies further south (upriver) in what is now modern Southern Egypt and extreme Northern Sudan^*, and was in ancient times known as Nubia.

If you want to go further back than that, we have to talk about the proto-Afroasiatic people. There are several disparate theories for where their original homeland was, including the Levant, the Horn of Africa, North Africa, and the Sahel.

Personally, I think the Horn of Africa theory is the most compelling because evidence from multiple disciplines points there, but I've certainly ended up wrong on such things before.

^{* - In absence of any good scholarly information on what peoples this society was composed of, I think Nilosaharans the most likely theory.}

The direct answer is that in modern Egyptian geographical terms, they came from central Egypt. In ancient historical terms, from "Upper Egypt".

First off, I need to address a misconception in the question. Modern Egyptians mostly speak Arabic, but the Egyptian language spoken by the Ancient Egyptians was not Semitic. It was part of another branch of the Afroasiatic language family (and lives on today only in the "dead" liturgical language of Coptic)

The first pharoes of the dynastic period in Egypt appear to have hailed from upper Egypt (roughly the smack dab in the middle of what is modern Egypt). Archeologically, the precursor to Ancient Dynastic Egypt is called the Naqauda culture after the excavation site, which is a smidge further up the Nile, but still in the middle of modern Egypt. This site goes back to 4000 BC. Prior to that for a few hundred years in this same area was the Badari Culture. The latter was the first Neolithic (farming) culture in that area. So your best bet for the original home of Egyptian culture is in that general vicinity. However, there were even earlier cereal-based proto-agricultural societies further south (upriver) in what is now modern Southern Egypt and extreme Northern Sudan^*, and was in ancient times known as Nubia.

If you want to go further back than that, we have to talk about the proto-Afroasiatic people. There are several disparate theories for where their original homeland was, including the Levant, the Horn of Africa, North Africa, and the Sahel.

Personally, I think the Horn of Africa theory is the most compelling because evidence from multiple disciplines points there, but I've certainly ended up wrong on such things before.

^{* - In absence of any good scholarly information on what peoples this society was composed of, I think Nilosaharans the most likely theory.}