Hamunaptra

Last updated
Hamunaptra
' The Mummy' location
First appearance The Mummy
Last appearance The Mummy (TV series)
Created by Stephen Sommers
GenreAction film
Information
TypeCity
Locations Sahara Desert, Egypt

Hamunaptra (also known as City of the Dead) [1] is a fictional Egyptian city that first made its appearance in the 1999 film The Mummy .

According to the films, Hamunaptra is a hidden city in the desert which is the resting place of Imhotep, the 3,000-year-old mummy that will revisit the Earth as a curse if released. He, and the city of Hamunaptra, are guarded by the Medjay (modern-day descendents of the Pharaoh's bodyguards), who do not want "The Creature" to be awakened and have guarded it for centuries. [2] It served as the resting place for Pharaohs and their wealth.

Appearances

The Mummy (1999)

The viewer's first introduction to Hamunaptra is when Brendan Fraser's Rick O'Connell and his military unit in the Foreign Legion come across it in the desert. [3]

As Bronwyn Williams writes in Popular Culture and Representations of Literacy, "In The Mummy, the object that first excites Evie's interest in Hamunaptra is a small, intricately made metal box that is a key for opening both the sarcophagus of the mummy and the fabled black Book of the Dead buried in his tomb. When the box springs open, Evie finds a map showing the location of Hamunaptra." [4] In the film, Evie is excited by the idea of Hamunaptra because her mother told her and her brother Jonathan Carnahan stories about the city when they were children. [5] Evie enlists Rick's help in finding the city, since he has been there, with an assortment of other characters joining the troupe in traveling to the desert city. [6]

The final climactic scene at the end of The Mummy is located within Hamunaptra. [7] The city sinks into the sand, and the main characters barely escape with their lives. The main antechamber, filled with mounds of treasure and gold, also sinks into the sand. [8]

The Mummy Returns (2001)

With the city sinking back into the sand at the end of The Mummy, in the sequel viewers see excavation attempts near the beginning of the film. Characters Meela Nais, the museum curator Hafez, and Lock-Nah oversee the excavation of Imhotep's resin-covered corpse, which they then reanimate. [9]

Literature

Hamunaptra appears in a number of books, including:

Music

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References

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  3. Holden, Stephen. "The Mummy". The New York Times.
  4. 1 2 Williams, Bronwyn (2007). Popular Culture and Representations of Literacy. Routledge. p. 79. ISBN   9781134235803.
  5. Dean, Michael (2001). The Mummy. Pearson Education. p. 11. ISBN   9780582505001.
  6. Kord, Susanne (2013). Contemporary Hollywood Masculinities: Gender, Genre, and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN   9781137016201.
  7. Williams, p. 80
  8. "Film: The Mummy Trilogy". TV Tropes. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
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  10. Peske, Nancy (2009). Cinematherapy for Lovers: The Girl's Guide to Finding True Love One Movie at a Time. Random House Publishing Group. ISBN   9780307482969.
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  14. Fictional Lost Cities and Towns: Atlantis, R'lyeh, Atlantis, the Nameless City, Norumbega, Osgiliath, Opar, Charn, Kitezh, Hamunaptra. General Books. 2010. ISBN   9781155862187.
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