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Nekhbet
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The Goddess Nekhbet, Temple of Hatshepsut Nekhbet Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II Physcon
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Al-Jizah. Giza Necropolis, Giza Plateau, Cairo, Egypt. Side view of Sphinx with the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) rising in the background. The sides of all three of the Giza pyramids are astronomically oriented to be north-south, east-west (see notes)
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The Goddess Nekhbet, Temple of Hatshepsut
The Goddess Nekhbet, Temple of Hatshepsut The Goddess Nekhbet, Temple of Hatshepsut, tempera on paper by Charles K. Wilkinson for the Egyptian Expedition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is a 20th-century facsimile of a painting created c. 1479–58 bce at the Temple of Hatshepsut, near Luxor, Egypt.

Nekhbet

Egyptian goddess
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History

Nekhbet, in Egyptian religion, vulture goddess who was the protector of Upper Egypt and especially its rulers.

Nekhbet was frequently portrayed as spreading her wings over the pharaoh while grasping in her claw the cartouche symbol or other emblems. She also appeared as a woman, often with a vulture’s head, wearing a white crown, and was sometimes depicted suckling the pharaoh. The center of Nekhbet’s cult was El-Kāb (Greek: Eileithyiaspolis), but her principal epithet made her the goddess of Hierakonpolis (or Nekhen), the ancient town opposite El-Kāb, on the west bank of the Nile River.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Alicja Zelazko.