Ancient Egypt was split up into many different districts called "sepats". The first divisions were created during the Predynastic Period, but then, they were small city-states that ruled themselves. When the first pharaoh came to power, the sepats remained and were much like the counties in many countries today. They stayed basically the same for a long time – there were 42 of them, and each was ruled by a governor chosen by the pharaoh. In later years the districts were called nomes and the governor was called a nomarch.