Akhet (hieroglyph)
Egyptian hieroglyph that represents the sun rising over a mountain
| Akhet (horizon) in hieroglyphs | ||
|---|---|---|
Akhet (Ancient Egyptian: Ꜣḫt; Gardiner: N27) is an Egyptian hieroglyph that represents the sun rising over a mountain. It is translated as "horizon" or "the place in the sky where the sun rises". Betrò describes it as "Mountain with the Rising Sun" (The hieroglyph for "mountain" is 𓈋) and an ideogram for "horizon".
Akhet appears in the Egyptian name for the Great Pyramid of Giza (Akhet Khufu), but in this case, it is written with the sign of the crested ibis, as shown by Verner, 2001, at page 189. The symbol of the sun rising between hills is present in the name of Akhetaten, the city founded by pharaoh Akhenaten. In the name of Akhenaten, there is the sign of the crested ibis It also appears in the name of the syncretized form of Ra and Horus, Ra-Horakhty (Rꜥ Ḥr Ꜣḫty, "Ra-Horus of the Horizons").
In ancient Egyptian architecture, the pylon mirrored the hieroglyph. The symbol is sometimes connected with the astrological sign of Libra and the Egyptian deity Aker, who guards the eastern and western horizons.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Akhet (hieroglyph)”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Aker or ruti and the akhet.jpg by Unknown author, Public domain
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