RLH: “The Pyramid which is the place of Sunrise and Sunset”



The translation of Axt xwfw as 'the pyramid which is the place of sunrise and sunset', assumes the flat 'strip of sand' determinative, N18, specifically indicates 'the place of sunrise and sunset'. This is only one possible interpretation however.

According to J.P. Allen, N18 is an ideogram for iw, 'island', and 'setat' (sTAt), a square khet of 10,000 square cubits. N18 is also the determinative for 'desert'; 'foreign land'. (Allen 2001: 436)


Allen translates Axt xwfw, 'Khufu's Akhet' - this is the literal translation - Allen defines 'Akhet' (Axt), as the 'Place of Becoming Akh', "......the place in which the king, like the sun and other celestial beings, undergoes the final transformation from the inertness of death and night to the form that allows him to live effectively - that is as an akh - in his new world. It is for this reason that the king and his celestial companions are said to "rise from the Axt," and not because the Axt is place on the horizon or - as some have suggested - because it is a place of light." ('The Cosmology of the Pyramid Texts', J.P. Allen 1997: 19-20)


The earliest PTs give many indications of the meaning of Akhet in the context of the royal afterlife beliefs:

the king's proper place was in front of all the privileged ones in the Akhet; he was given title as the greatest controlling power by Sah (saH, 'Orion') the father of the gods, for the king reappeared in the sky and was crowned 'lord of the Akhet' (W180b); he was given the Akhet, and took control of it as 'Horus of the Akhet' (T3); he became Akh in the Akhet (T187)

Horus became akh again with the king, in the king's identity of the Akhet from which the Sun emerged (T 199b) the king was ferried to the eastern side of the sky, to the place where the gods were born, and the king was born there in his birth with them, as Horus, as him of the Akhet. (P 320)


The Horus king identified with Horus as the 'living one of Horus's appearance'. Horus was 'Horus of the Akhet', 'Horus in the Akhet', 'Lord of the Akhet', 'Lord of the Sky', and like the Sun, who emerged from the Akhet, the king was reborn, he was alive.


As early as mid Dyn 5, Akhet in 'Sun, Horus of the Akhet', had N 27, 'sun rising over mountain' as the determinative, but this one example was in the context of a sun-temple.

In the PTs, Akhet in 'Horus of the Akhet' had N18, 'strip of sand', as the determinative, and if the determinative is present in the name 'Khufu's Akhet', its always N18 not N27.

In the MK Coffin Texts the N18 det. for Akhet was invariably changed to N27.


Khufu's Akhet may have had the meaning of 'the place where Khufu became Akh'. As N18 is the ideogram for iw, 'island', and the determinative in 'desert', 'foreign land', it could convey the meaning of 'otherworldlyness', rather like the 'seated god' (A40) determinative for Osiris, which is very similar to the 'seated man' determinative for 'foreigner' - Osiris, the king who died, existed in an 'otherworld' another dimension - the realm beyond the boundary between sky and earth, the horizon, was inaccessible - it always stayed the same distance away, unreachable except for the gods who emerged from there - were 'born' there, and the dead king, who believed he would become Akh in the Akhet, believed that like the sun, he would emerge alive from the Akhet.


In the PTs, the 'Imperishable Stars' raised the king aloft - he was born as a star, and he appeared as a star; the king was the 'greatest official' of the akhs, the northern Imperishable Stars of the sky.... (P467) The king was at the fore of the akhs, the Imperishable Stars..... (T 204); the eyes of the akhs, were the Imperishable Stars (P319a), who were gods (P37) The king was the 'seed', of Osiris, "which is sharp in your identity, (O seed), of Horus at the fore of the akhs, the star that crosses the Great Green" (P 518)


The son and successor of Khufu, Djedefra, had a pyramid built with the same form and angle of incline as his father's pyramid, and his pyramid was named 'Djedefre is a shining star' (Strudwick 2005). Another pyramid of a possible grandson of Khufu was named 'Nebka? is a star'.

These names suggest the pyramid itself was a shining manifestation of the king

CT