Nebu

Nebu is the Egyptian symbol for gold. It depicts a golden collar with the ends hanging off the sides and seven spines dangling from the middle.

Ancient Egyptians believed that gold was an indestructible and heavenly metal. The sun god, Ra, was often referred to as a mountain of gold. The Royal Tomb, in fact, known as the "House of Gold". The Pharaohs of the Old Kingdom were called the "Golden Horus". The skin of gods and other deities was said to be golden.

In Middle Egyptian the hieroglyph for nebu is

It was sometimes followed by the goddess determinative:

- this changed its meaning to "the Golden One", an epiphet of Hathor.^[1]

The Ancient Egyptian name for the city of Ombos, Nebet, also used the nebu hieroglyph.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962). A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian (11th ed.). Oxford, United Kingdom: Griffith Institute. p. 129. ISBN 9780900416323. OCLC 4466599. 

• Gold (nebu), egyptianmyths.net
• Egyptian Gold, aldokkan.com