Khor

Khor (also Hurru, Kharu) is the second, later name used by ancient Egyptians after using Retjenu in designating the wider Syrian region, where speakers of Canaanite languages lived.^[1] It was long an outpost of ancient Egypt and is explicitly mentioned in the Great Hymn to the Aten as a geographic region, along with the kingdoms of Kush and Egypt. Based on the Amarna letters, it is plausible that Khor is a Middle Egyptian reference to Canaan.

This word spelled as Hurru or Kharru is also used on the Merneptah Stele. In this inscription,

Hatti and Hurru stand for the whole region of Syro-Palestine; Canaan and Israel represent smaller units within the area, and Gezer, Ashkelon, and Yanoam are three cities within the region."^[2]

Taharqa, Tarqo of Kush and pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt, claimed to conquer this territory as attested by the "list of conquered Asiatic principalities" from the Mut temple at Karnak, as well as in Sanam temple inscriptions.^[3] Taharqa disputed this region with Sennacherib of Assyria.

The Egyption Story of Wenamun refers to a location named Kharu. According to Alessandra Nibbi, the expression "the great ym of Kharu" is often connected to the Mediterranean sea. But she was trying to reinterpret this and other associated geographical names and to tie them to other locations.^[4]

Notes

^ Steindorff, George; Seele, Keith C. (2014) [1942]. "VI. Western Asia in the middle of the second millennium B.C.". When Egypt Ruled the East (revised ed.). University of Chicago Press. p. 47. ISBN 022622855X. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
^ Mark S. Smith 2002, The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p.26
^ Török, László (1998). The Kingdom of Kush: Handbook of the Napatan-Meroitic Civilization. Leiden: BRILL. pp. 132–133, 170–184. ISBN 90-04-10448-8.
^ A. Nibbi, The City of Dor and Wenamun, Discussions in Egyptology 35 (1996), 76-95

[When-1] Steindorff, George; Seele, Keith C. (2014) [1942]. "VI. Western Asia in the middle of the second millennium B.C.". When Egypt Ruled the East (revised ed.). University of Chicago Press. p. 47. ISBN 022622855X. Retrieved 17 February 2024.

[2] Mark S. Smith 2002, The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p.26

[Torok-3] Török, László (1998). The Kingdom of Kush: Handbook of the Napatan-Meroitic Civilization. Leiden: BRILL. pp. 132–133, 170–184. ISBN 90-04-10448-8.

[4] A. Nibbi, The City of Dor and Wenamun, Discussions in Egyptology 35 (1996), 76-95

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