... were Upper Egypt (the southern part, including the cities of Thinis, Nazade, Nekhen and Thebes) and Lower Egypt (the northern part, including Memphis). The Pschent (generally referred to by the ancient Egyptians as sekhemty – the Two Powerful Ones) combined the Red Deshret Crown of Lower Egypt and the White Hedjet Crown of Upper Egypt. It bore two animal emblems: an Egyptian cobra, ready to strike (known as the uraeus), which symbolized the Lower Egyptian goddess Wadjet, and an Egyptian vulture representing the Upper Egyptian tutelary goddess Nekhbet. These were fastened to the front of the Pschent and referred to as the Two Ladies. In later years, the vulture's head was sometimes replaced by a second cobra.
The well–known death mask of Tutankhamun, on display in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, shows a good example of the Pschent with the cobra's head and the vulture's head.
© Haydn Thompson 2018