Nekhbet (; also spelt Nekhebit) is an early

predynastic Prehistoric Egypt and Predynastic Egypt span the period from the earliest human settlement to the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period around 3100 BC, starting with the first Pharaoh, Narmer for some Egyptologists, Hor-Aha for others, with ...

local

goddess A goddess is a female deity. In many known cultures, goddesses are often linked with literal or metaphorical pregnancy or imagined feminine roles associated with how women and girls are perceived or expected to behave. This includes themes of s ...

Egyptian mythology Egyptian mythology is the collection of myths from ancient Egypt, which describe the actions of the Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the world around them. The beliefs that these myths express are an important part of ancient Egyptia ...

, who was the patron of the city of

Nekheb El Kab (or better Elkab) is an Upper Egyptian site on the east bank of the Nile at the mouth of the Wadi Hillal about south of Luxor (ancient Thebes). El Kab was called Nekheb in the Egyptian language ( , Late Coptic: ), a name that refers to ...

(her name meaning ''of Nekheb''). Ultimately, she became the patron of

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient ...

and one of the two patron deities for all of Ancient Egypt when it was unified.Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003). ''The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt''. Thames & Hudson. pp. 213–214

Mythology

One of Egypt's earliest

temples A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

was the shrine of Nekhbet at Nekheb (also referred to as El Kab). It was the companion city to

Nekhen Nekhen ( egy, nḫn, ); in grc, Ἱεράκων πόλις Hierakonpolis ( either: City of the Hawk, or City of the Falcon, a reference to Horus or ''Hierakōn polis'' "Hawk City" in arz, الكوم الأحمر, el-Kōm el-Aḥmar, lit=the ...

, the religious and political capital of Upper Egypt, at the end of the

Predynastic Prehistoric Egypt and Predynastic Egypt span the period from the earliest human settlement to the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period around 3100 BC, starting with the first Pharaoh, Narmer for some Egyptologists, Hor-Aha for others, with ...

period (c. 3200–3100 BC) and probably, also during the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3100–2686 BC). The original settlement on the Nekhen site dates from

Naqada Naqada (Egyptian Arabic: ; Coptic language: ; Ancient Greek: ) is a town on the west bank of the Nile in Qena Governorate, Egypt, situated ca. 20 km north of Luxor. It includes the villages of Tukh, Khatara, Danfiq, and Zawayda. Accordi ...

I or the late Badarian cultures. At its height, from about 3400 BC, Nekhen had at least 5,000 and possibly as many as 10,000 inhabitants. Nekhbet was the

tutelary deity A tutelary () (also tutelar) is a deity or a spirit who is a guardian, patron, or protector of a particular place, geographic feature, person, lineage, nation, culture, or occupation. The etymology of "tutelary" expresses the concept of safety and ...

of Upper Egypt. Nekhbet and her

Lower Egypt Lower Egypt ( ar, مصر السفلى '; ) is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, ...

ian counterpart

Wadjet Wadjet (; egy, wꜢḏyt "Green One"), known to the Greek world as Uto (; grc-koi, Οὐτώ) or Buto (; ) among other renderings including Wedjat, Uadjet, and Udjo, was originally the ancient local goddess of the city of Dep. It became part ...

often appeared together as the "

Two Ladies In Ancient Egyptian texts, the "Two Ladies" ( egy, nbtj, sometimes anglicized ''Nebty'') was a religious epithet for the goddesses Wadjet and Nekhbet, two deities who were patrons of the ancient Egyptians and worshiped by all after the unificati ...

". One of the

titles A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...

of each ruler was the ''Nebty'' name, which began with the hieroglyphs for '' /heof the Two Ladies...''. In art, Nekhbet was depicted as a vulture.

Alan Gardiner Sir Alan Henderson Gardiner, (29 March 1879 – 19 December 1963) was an English Egyptologist, linguist, philologist, and independent scholar. He is regarded as one of the premier Egyptologists of the early and mid-20th century. Personal life G ...

identified the species that was used in divine iconography as a

griffon vulture The Eurasian griffon vulture (''Gyps fulvus'') is a large Old World vulture in the bird of prey family Accipitridae. It may also be known as the Griffon vulture, though it may be used for the genus as a whole. It is not to be confused with Rü ...

. Arielle P. Kozloff, however, argues that the vultures in

New Kingdom New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

art, with their blue-tipped beaks and loose skin, better resemble the

lappet-faced vulture The lappet-faced vulture or Nubian vulture (''Torgos tracheliotos'') is an Old World vulture belonging to the bird order Accipitriformes, which also includes eagles, kites, buzzards and hawks. It is the only member of the genus ''Torgos''. It ...

. In New Kingdom times, the vulture appeared alongside the

uraeus The Uraeus (), or Ouraeus (Ancient Greek: , ; Egyptian: ', "rearing cobra"), ''(plural: Uraei)'' is the stylized, upright form of an Egyptian cobra, used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity and divine authority in ancient Egypt. Sym ...

on the headdresses with which kings were buried. The uraeus and vulture are traditionally interpreted as Wadjet and Nekhbet, but Edna R. Russmann has suggested that in this context they represent

Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...

and Nephthys, two major funerary goddesses, instead.Robins, Gay, Review of ''The Animal World of the Pharaohs'' and ''Choice Cuts: Meat Production in Ancient Egypt''. ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'', vol. 119, no. 1, (January–March 1999) Nekhbet usually was depicted hovering, with her wings spread above the royal image, clutching a shen symbol (representing eternal encircling protection), frequently in her claws.

Gallery

File:Egypt.Nekhbet.01.jpg, Nekhbet holding a staff and

Shen ring __NOTOC__ Shen may refer to: * Shen (Chinese religion) (神), a central word in Chinese philosophy, religion, and traditional Chinese medicine; term for god or spirit * Shen (clam-monster) (蜃), a shapeshifting Chinese dragon believed to create mi ...

File:Relief from the Temple of Nekhbet at El Kab.jpg, Relief from the Temple of Nekhbet at El Kab File:Medinet Habu Ramses III31c.jpg, Paintings of Nekhbet on the ceiling of the

mortuary temple of Ramesses III The Temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu was an important New Kingdom period temple structure in the West Bank of Luxor in Egypt. Aside from its size and architectural and artistic importance, the mortuary temple is probably best known as the s ...

at Medinet Habu File:Tête de déesse vautour (Oxford Ashmolean Museum).jpg,

Granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

statue of Nekhbet from

Sanam Sanam may refer to: Places * Sanam, Iran, a village in Iran * Sanam, Niger, a commune in Niger * Sanam, Sudan, a village in Sudan Entertainment * Sanam (1997 film), ''Sanam'' (1997 film), a 1997 Hindi drama film * Sanam (1951 film), ''Sanam'' ( ...

Lower Nubia Lower Nubia is the northernmost part of Nubia, roughly contiguous with the modern Lake Nasser, which submerged the historical region in the 1960s with the construction of the Aswan High Dam. Many ancient Lower Nubian monuments, and all its modern p ...

Twenty-fifth Dynasty The Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXV, alternatively 25th Dynasty or Dynasty 25), also known as the Nubian Dynasty, the Kushite Empire, the Black Pharaohs, or the Napatans, after their capital Napata, was the last dynasty of th ...

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of ...

File:Temple of Deir Al Bahri Hatshepsut 2b.jpg, Nekhbet with outstretched wings below a row of uraei, from the

mortuary temple of Hatshepsut The mortuary temple of Hatshepsut (Egyptian: ''Ḏsr-ḏsrw'' meaning "Holy of Holies") is a mortuary temple built during the reign of Pharaoh Hatshepsut of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Located opposite the city of Luxor, it is considered t ...

Deir el-Bahari Deir el-Bahari or Dayr al-Bahri ( ar, الدير البحري, al-Dayr al-Baḥrī, the Monastery of the North) is a complex of mortuary temples and tombs located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the city of Luxor, Egypt. This is a part of ...

File:Flickr - schmuela - Horus sphinx and Nekhbet.jpg, Nekhbet next to

Haremakhet Haremakhet (also Horemakhet or, in Greek, Harmakhis) was an ancient Egyptian prince and High Priest of Amun during the 25th Dynasty. Biography A son of pharaoh Shabaka and possibly of his queen Tabaktenamun, he was appointed by his father as t ...

on a column

In popular culture

*Nekhbet is a bird-like monster in ''

Final Fantasy XII is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square Enix. The twelfth main installment of the ''Final Fantasy'' series, it was first released for the PlayStation 2 in 2006. It introduced several innovations to the series: an open wo ...

''. *Nekhbet appears in

Rick Riordan Richard Russell Riordan Junior (; born June 5, 1964) is an American author, best known for writing the ''Percy Jackson & the Olympians'' series. Riordan's books have been translated into forty-two languages and sold more than thirty million co ...

's ''

The Throne of Fire ''The Throne of Fire'' is a 2011 fantasy adventure novel written by American author Rick Riordan. It is the second novel in ''The Kane Chronicles'' series, which tells of the adventures of modern-day fourteen-year-old Carter Kane and his twelve-y ...

'' as a minor antagonist. *Nekhbet is the name of a pet vulture in the

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

'' Tenshi ni Narumon''.

Mythology

Gallery

In popular culture

References

Further reading