The goddess Nekhbet is usualy represented as a vulture, as a woman with the head of a vulture or as a woman wearing the Atef-crown. The Atef-crown resembles the White Crown of Upper Egypt, but it is flanked by two feathers and sometimes stands on two flat ram's horns. She can only be represented simply wearing the White Crown.
Her primary cult centres are located in the ancient cities of Nekheb (Elkab) and Nekhen (Hierakonpolis), situated across each other on both banks of the Nile in the South of Upper-Egypt.
Her name means "the one of Nekheb". Her most important epithet "the White One of Nekhen" relates her to Hierakonpolis.
She is the personification of the White Crown of Upper Egypt, and as such, she is associated with her Lower-Egyptian counterpart, Uto. Both goddesses are often represented together, crowning the king.
By extension, she is not only the goddess of the White Crown, but also the patron goddess of Upper-Egypt. It is thus not surprising to find Nekhbet, along with Uto, in the Two Ladies name of the royal titulary.
As a vulture-goddess, Nekhbet is the goddess of heaven, sometimes related to the sun when she is called "the Eye of Re" and other times to the moon. She is also the protectress of the king and of the non-royal deceased. As such, she is represented as a vulture extending one wing to the front, the other to the ground, flying above the person she is protecting.
- Nekhbet -
Nekhbet (right) and Uto (left) crown the King. From a scene at the temple of Horus at Edfu.
