The ancient Egyptian name of the country was  km-m-t:O49  (𓆎𓅓𓏏𓊖) '''''', which means black land, likely referring to the fertile black soils of the Nile flood plains, distinct from the ''deshret'' (), or "red land" of the desert. This name is commonly vocalised as ''Kemet'', but was probably pronounced  in ancient Egyptian. The name is realised as '''' and '''' in the Coptic stage of the Egyptian language, and appeared in early Greek as  (''''). Another name was  "land of the riverbank". The names of Upper and Lower Egypt were ''Ta-Sheme'aw'' () "sedgeland" and ''Ta-Mehew'' () "northland", respectively.