Representing two hills framing a wadi. Compare the Chinese character 丘. The hieroglyph was generally colored yellow or pink with dark spots to represent desert and rock, and sometimes its base was colored black or green to represent cultivated land. Archaic forms (and occasionally Old Kingdom and later forms) show the outer sides sloping instead of vertical. The phonogrammatic value of ḏw is derived by the rebus principle from its use as a logogram for ḏw (“mountain”).
(ḏw)
- Biliteral phonogram for ḏw.
- Logogram for ḏw (“mountain”).
- Determinative in mntj (“the two mountain ranges”).
- Determinative for names of foreign countries, by confusion with (𓈉).
- Gardiner, Alan (1957) Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs, third edition, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 489
- Henry George Fischer (1988) Ancient Egyptian Calligraphy: A Beginner’s Guide to Writing Hieroglyphs, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, →ISBN, page 36
- Betrò, Maria Carmela (1995) Geroglifici: 580 Segni per Capire l'Antico Egitto, Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A., →ISBN