Rekhyt

Rekhyt
Rekhyt under the feet of Djoser (Statue) (Egyptian Museum in Cairo)
Name in hieroglyphs	[1]

The word Rekhyt, also romanized as Rechit, referred to a people living in the northern Nile Delta in the Early Dynastic Period of Ancient Egypt, as well as the deity Rekhyt from the Middle Kingdom onwards. The Rekhyt people’s origins are unclear, as they were not yet considered Egyptians at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. Their settlement area extended to the border of Retjenu. Early inscriptions and monuments speak of the Rekhyt as mythological inhabitants of the Nile Delta, as all "northern enemies of Upper Egypt" were also among the "inhabitants of Qebehu".

After the collapse of the Old Kingdom and the associated upheaval and religious reorientation, the meaning of the term "Rekhyt" changed. At the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, the name "Rekhyt" was transferred to a new deity. The Rekhyt no longer appeared as a separate people; instead the Egyptians saw a connection with Horus in the earlier Rekhyt people, especially from the New Kingdom onwards. The popular name Rekhyt and its associated meaning was subject to change, and the word Rekhyt came to mean "the common people" as a generic term.