Khaset (''Mountain bull'', also Chasuu) was one of 42 nomes (administrative division) in

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

., Egypt Ancient.net, accessdate=2010-08-15
Reshafim.org, accessdate=2010-08-15
Aldokan.com, accessdate=2010-08-15
Digital Egypt for Universities, accessdate=2010-08-15

Geography

Khaset was one of the 20 nomes in

Lower Egypt Lower Egypt ( ') is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, the Nile River split into sev ...

and had district number 6. The area of the district is not readable, usually the nomes were about 30-40 km (18-24 miles) in length and their area depending on the depth of the Nile valley and the beginning of the desert. The area was calculated in ''cha-ta'' (1 cha-ta equals roughly 2.75 hectare / 2.4 acres) and the distance was calculated in ''iteru'' (1 iteru equals roughly 10.5 km / 6.2 miles) in length.
, Faszination Ägypten (in German), accessdate=2010-08-15 The ''Niwt'' (main city) was Khasu/

Xois Sakha, also known by the ancient name of Xois (, , Strabo xvii. p, 802; Ptolemy iv. 5. § 50; , Stephanus of Byzantium ''s. v.'') is a town in Kafr El Sheikh Governorate of Egypt. Located near the center of the Nile Delta, it is a city of great ...

(part of modern Sakha) and among other cities were Per-Wadjet/

Buto Buto (, , ''Butu''), Bouto, Butus (, ''Boutos'')Herodotus ii. 59, 63, 155. or Butosus was a city that the Ancient Egyptians called Per-Wadjet. It was located 95 km east of Alexandria in the Nile Delta of Egypt. What in classical times the ...

(modern Tell el-Farain). Per-Wadjet was sometimes also part of the Sap-Meh nome.

History

Every nome was ruled by a

nomarch A nomarch (, Great Chief) was a provincial governor in ancient Egypt; the country was divided into 42 provinces, called Nome (Egypt), nomes (singular , plural ). A nomarch was the government official responsible for a nome. Etymology The te ...

(provincial governor) who answered directly to the

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:pr ꜥꜣ, pr ꜥꜣ''; Meroitic language, Meroitic: 𐦲𐦤𐦧, ; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') was the title of the monarch of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty of Egypt, First Dynasty ( ...

. Every ''niwt'' had a ''Het net'' (

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

) dedicated to the chief

deity A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

and a ''Heqa het'' (nomarch's residence). The district's main deities were

Wadjet Wadjet (; "Green One"), known to the Greek world as Uto (; ) or Buto (; ) among other renderings including Wedjat, Uadjet, and Udjo, was originally the ancient Egyptian Tutelary deity, local goddess of the city of Dep or Buto in Lower Egypt, ...

and Ra. Other major deities in the area included

Isis Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

and

Osiris Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wikt:wsjr, wsjr'') was the ancient Egyptian deities, god of fertility, agriculture, the Ancient Egyptian religion#Afterlife, afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was ...

. Today the area is part of the

Gharbia Governorate Gharbia ( ', , "the western governorate") is one of the governorates of Egypt. It is located in the north of the country, south of Kafr El Sheikh Governorate, and north of Monufia Governorate. Its capital is Tanta, which is 90 km north of ...

References

* Helck, Wolfgang ; Westendorf, Wolfhart: ''Lexikon der Ägyptologie''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 1977.

External links

{{commonscat, Nome 6 of Lower Egypt (Mountain bull land)
About the nomes of Egypt

Hieroglyphs of the nomes
Nomes of ancient Egypt