The ancient Egyptian

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...

 hieroglyph

Egyptian hieroglyphs

Egyptian hieroglyphs were a formal writing system used by the ancient Egyptians that combined logographic and alphabetic elements. Egyptians used cursive hieroglyphs for religious literature on papyrus and wood...

 for the Emblem of the West, or Symbol of the West is one of the pairs of symbols for 'east', and 'west'.

Both symbols have important characteristic associations. For the west, the cemetery for souls going to the afterlife

Afterlife

The afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...

 was in the west, with the setting sun. The goddess Amunet

Amunet

Amunet, Amaunet, or Amonet was a primordial goddess in Ancient Egyptian religion. She is a member of the Ogdoad and the consort of Amun. Her name, meaning "the female hidden one", was simply the feminine form of Amun's own name. Therefore, it is likely that she was never an independent deity, but...

, an originally ancient goddess had one of her aspects with the symbol of the west upon her head.

Emblem description

The Emblem of the West is composed of a hawk or ostrich feather. The alternate version of the symbol contains the complete figure of the hawk, for Horus

Horus

Horus is one of the oldest and most significant deities in the Ancient Egyptian religion, who was worshipped from at least the late Predynastic period through to Greco-Roman times. Different forms of Horus are recorded in history and these are treated as distinct gods by Egyptologists...

, with the feather extending sideways, making it similar to the iat standard, surmounted by individual gods.

Hieroglyphic linguistic value

As a 'standard with feather', the west emblem has the hieroglyphic

Egyptian hieroglyphs

Egyptian hieroglyphs were a formal writing system used by the ancient Egyptians that combined logographic and alphabetic elements. Egyptians used cursive hieroglyphs for religious literature on papyrus and wood...

 value of imnt-(ideogram

Ideogram

An ideogram or ideograph is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept. Some ideograms are comprehensible only by familiarity with prior convention; others convey their meaning through pictorial resemblance to a physical object, and thus may also be referred to as pictograms.Examples of...

), for "the west", and related words. An example related word is "right", as the cardinal points were south-north, then west-east, and has the value "wnmy", (or unmy).

The Libyans, (in the west from the Nile Delta

Nile Delta

The Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline—and is a rich...

), wore the feather as part of their headdress.