The name of one of the forms of the god Horus, literally meaning 'Horus of the Horizon' (the horizon here is not the visible border between heaven and earth but rather the area lit by the sun's light just before dawn). The god is therefore linked with the east and can be regarded as the god of the morning sun. Already in the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts, Harakhty is mentioned together with the sun god Re himself. The many similarities between the two gods meant that they were very soon merged into the god Re-Harakhty. As 'Horus in the horizon', in Egyptian Her-em-akhet and in Greek Harmakhis, the god was worshipped in the form of the Sphinx of Giza from the New Kingdom on. The Sphinx is actually a statue of King Khafre of the 4th Dynasty which was later interpreted as a statue of Re-Harakhty.