Akhet (Ancient Egyptian:Ꜣḫt;Gardiner:N27) is anEgyptianhieroglyph that represents the sun rising over a mountain. It is translated as "horizon" or "the place in the sky where the sun rises".[1] Betrò describes it as "Mountain with the Rising Sun" (The hieroglyph for "mountain" is𓈋) and anideogram for "horizon".[2]
Akhet appears in the Egyptian name for theGreat Pyramid ofGiza (Akhet Khufu), but in this case, it is written with the sign of the crested ibis, as shown by Verner, 2001, at page 189.[3] The symbol of the sun rising between hills is present in the name ofAkhetaten, the city founded bypharaohAkhenaten. In the name of Akhenaten, there is the sign of the crested ibis[4] It also appears in the name of the syncretized form ofRa andHorus,Ra-Horakhty (Rꜥ Ḥr Ꜣḫty, "Ra–Horus of the Horizons").[5]
Hieroglyphic for the horizon guarded by Aker.
Inancient Egyptian architecture, thepylon mirrored the hieroglyph.[6][7] The symbol is sometimes connected with the astrological sign ofLibra[8] and the Egyptian deityAker, who guards the eastern and western horizons.
^Gardiner, Alan H. (1957).Egyptian grammar : being an introduction to the study of hieroglyphs. 1969 printing (3rd ed.). London: Published on behalf of the Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, by Oxford University Press. p. 489.ISBN9780900416354.OCLC229894.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
