The god Ha, “Lord of the West,” is usually referred to as the god or the personification of the Western Desert. Even though Ha bore his symbol, the three-peaked mountain ridge sign, on a standard on his head, referring to his name, his relationship with the desert as a physical environment is not necessarily clear from the known evidence, and it requires further investigation. This study puts a particular emphasis on a handful of sources that explicitly or implicitly refer to this relationship, and it investigates Ha’s association with his domain, the desert, through a symbolic and semantic approach. The central subject matter is the god’s relationship with this largely arid region through the analysis of related lexemes associated with Ha, such as zmj.t, spA.t, xAs.t, and jmn.t, their textual and/or iconographical context. Words referring to actual places or areas in the desert are beyond the scope of this study.
Ha, “Lord of the West”; Egyptian landscape; desert; spA.t; xAs.t; jmn.t
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