Ancient Egyptian language

Ancient Egyptian art refers to art produced in ancient Egypt between the 6th millennium BC and the 4th century AD, spanning from Prehistoric Egypt until the Christianization of Roman Egypt. It includes paintings, sculptures, drawings on papyrus, faience, jewelry, ivories, architecture, and other art media. It was a conservative tradition whose style changed very little over time. Much of the surviving examples comes from tombs and monuments, giving insight into the ancient Egyptian afterlife beliefs.

The ancient Egyptian language had no word for "art". Artworks served an essentially functional purpose that was bound with religion and ideology. To render a subject in art was to grant it permanence; thus, ancient Egyptian art portrayed an idealized and unrealistic version of the world. There was no significant tradition of individual artistic expression since art served a wider and cosmic purpose of maintaining order (Ma'at).

A nomarch (Ancient Greek: νομάρχης, Ancient Egyptian: ḥrj tp ꜥꜣ Great Chief) was a provincial governor in ancient Egypt; the country was divided into 42 provinces, called nomes (singular spꜣ.t, plural spꜣ.wt). A nomarch was the government official responsible for a nome. More recent studies are more cautious about using this term as it is a Greek word that does not exactly match Ancient Egyptian administrative titles and modern scholars often prefer other, more neutral words for describing the heads of the provinces, such as governor.

Heliopolis (Jwnw, Iunu; Ancient Egyptian: 𓉺𓏌𓊖, romanized: jwnw, lit. 'the Pillars'; Coptic: ⲱⲛ, Biblical Hebrew: אֹן, romanized: ʾOn; Greek: Ἡλιούπολις, romanized: Hēlioúpolis, lit. 'City of the Sun') was a major city of ancient Egypt. It was the capital of the Heliopolite or 13th Nome (province or district) of Lower Egypt and a major religious centre. Its site is within the boundaries of Ain Shams and El Matareya, districts (kism) in northeastern Cairo.

One of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, occupied since prehistoric Egypt, it greatly expanded under the Old and Middle Kingdoms. But today it's mostly destroyed, its temples and other buildings having been scavenged for the construction of medieval Cairo. Most information about the ancient city comes from surviving records.

Ramesses II (/ˈræməsiːz, ˈræmsiːz, ˈræmziːz/; Ancient Egyptian: rꜥ-ms-sw, Rīꜥa-masē-sə, Ancient Egyptian pronunciation: [ɾiːʕamaˈseːsə]; c. 1303 BC – 1213 BC), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Along with Thutmose III of the Eighteenth Dynasty, he is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the New Kingdom, which itself was the most powerful period of ancient Egypt. He is also widely considered one of ancient Egypt's most successful warrior pharaohs, conducting no fewer than 15 military campaigns, all resulting in victories, excluding the Battle of Kadesh, which is generally considered a stalemate. His 66-year rule was also the longest recorded reign of any pharaoh (and one of the longest in history), possibly alongside Pepi II, who lived 1000 years earlier and is said to have reigned for 90 years.

In ancient Greek sources, he is called Ozymandias, derived from the first part of his Egyptian-language regnal name: Usermaatre Setepenre. Ramesses was also referred to as the "Great Ancestor" by successor pharaohs.

The Libu (Ancient Egyptian: rbw; also transcribed Rebu, Libo, Lebu) were an Ancient Libyan tribe of Berber origin, from which the name Libya derives.

Nut /ˈnʊt/ (Ancient Egyptian: Nwt, Coptic: Ⲛⲉ), also known by various other transcriptions, is the goddess of the sky, stars, cosmos, mothers, astronomy, and the universe in the ancient Egyptian religion.

She is often depicted as a nude woman covered with stars and arching over the Earth; and sometimes as a cow. Alternatively, she is identified with a water-pot (nw) above her head.

Mentuhotep II (Ancient Egyptian: Mn-ṯw-ḥtp, meaning "Mentu is satisfied"), also known under his prenomen Nebhepetre (Ancient Egyptian: Nb-ḥpt-Rˁ, meaning "The Lord of the rudder is Ra"; died c. 2009 BC), was an ancient Egyptian King, the sixth ruler of the 11th Dynasty. He is credited with reuniting Egypt, thus ending the turbulent First Intermediate Period and becoming the first pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom. He reigned for 51 years, according to the Turin King List. Mentuhotep II succeeded his father Intef III on the throne and was in turn succeeded by his son Mentuhotep III.

Mentuhotep II ascended Egypt's throne in the Upper Egyptian city of Thebes during the First Intermediate Period. Egypt was not unified during this time, and the 10th Dynasty, rival to Mentuhotep's 11th, ruled Lower Egypt from Herakleopolis. After the Herakleopolitan kings desecrated the sacred ancient royal necropolis of Abydos in Upper Egypt in the fourteenth year of Mentuhotep's reign, Pharaoh Mentuhotep II dispatched his armies north to conquer Lower Egypt. Continuing his father Intef III's conquests, Mentuhotep succeeded in unifying his country, probably shortly before his 39th year on the throne. Following and in recognition of the unification, in regnal year 39, he changed his titulary to Sematawy (Ancient Egyptian: Smȝ-tȝ.w(j), meaning "He who unifies the two lands").

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Nekhen (/ˈnɛkən/, Ancient Egyptian: nḫn), also known as Hierakonpolis (/ˌhaɪərəˈkɒnpəlɪs/; Greek: Ἱεράκων πόλις, romanized: Hierákōn pólis, meaning City of Hawks or City of Falcons, a reference to Horus; Egyptian Arabic: الكوم الأحمر, romanized: el-Kōm el-Aḥmar, lit. 'the Red Mound') was the religious and political capital of Upper Egypt at the end of prehistoric Egypt (c. 3200–3100 BC) and probably also during the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3100–2686 BC).

Hedjet (Ancient Egyptian: 𓌉𓏏𓋑, romanized: ḥḏt, lit. 'White One') is the White Crown of pharaonic Upper Egypt. After the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, it was combined with the Deshret, the Red Crown of Lower Egypt, to form the Pschent, the double crown of Egypt. The symbol sometimes used for the White Crown was the vulture goddess Nekhbet shown next to the head of the cobra goddess Wadjet, the uraeus on the Pschent.