Ha ( egy, ḥꜣ), in ancient Egyptian religion, was a god of the '' Western Desert & the fertile oasis of Western Desert of Egypt''. He was associated with the

Duat The Duat ( egy, dwꜣt, Egyptological pronunciation "do-aht", cop, ⲧⲏ, also appearing as ''Tuat'', ''Tuaut'' or ''Akert'', ''Amenthes'', ''Amenti'', or ''Neter-khertet'') is the realm of the dead in ancient Egyptian mythology. It has been ...

(the

underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underwor ...

) and pictured as a man wearing the

hieroglyph A hieroglyph ( Greek for "sacred carvings") was a character of the ancient Egyptian writing system. Logographic scripts that are pictographic in form in a way reminiscent of ancient Egyptian are also sometimes called "hieroglyphs". In Neoplatoni ...

symbol for desert hills on his head. Ha was said to protect Egypt from enemies such as invading ancient Libyans. He is associated with Set, since Set represent the west of the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest ...

and they both have similar attributes - the desert.

Worship

It is unknown, since when Ha was worshipped in ancient Egypt. But at first he was the ''god of fertility'', son of an almost unknown deity named Yau, but in the later period of Egypt, he took his place by removing the western desert god Ash. He was later shown as the symbol of the west, while Sapadu was the symbol of the east, and Dedun the symbol of the south. The ancient Egyptians saw him as a guardian deity of the

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the ...

. The

inscription Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the w ...

on the pyramids of

Unas Unas or Wenis, also spelled Unis ( egy, wnjs, hellenized form Oenas or Onnos), was a pharaoh, the ninth and last ruler of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt during the Old Kingdom. Unas reigned for 15 to 30 years in the mid- 24th century BC (circa ...

shows him as the ''protector of the dead pharaoh''.

Other Associations

The dinosaur ''

Hagryphus ''Hagryphus'' (meaning " Ha's griffin") is a monospecific genus of caenagnathid dinosaur from southern Utah that lived during the Late Cretaceous (upper Campanian stage, 75.95 Ma) in what is now the Kaiparowits Formation of the Grand Staircas ...

'' ("Ha's griffin") was named after Ha; it was discovered in Utah and Ha's association with the western deserts was carried over to the deserts of the Southwestern United States.Zanno, L. E. and Sampson, S. D. 2005. A new oviraptorosaur (Theropoda; Maniraptora) from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of Utah. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 25 (4):897–904, December 2005

References

Egyptian gods Nature gods Underworld gods Egyptian underworld Set (deity) Western Desert (Egypt) {{Egyptian-myth-stub