Hamunaptra

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.

Hamunaptra
'The Mummy' location
First appearanceThe Mummy
Last appearanceThe Mummy Returns
Created byStephen Sommers
GenreAction film
Information
TypeCity
Notable locationsSahara Desert, Egypt

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, who do not want "the beast" 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:

  • Cinematherapy for Lovers: The Girl's Guide to Finding True Love One Movie at a Time by Nancy Peske and Beverly West[10]
  • Conspiracy Prophecy by Pochenko[11]
  • Consuming Ancient Egypt by Sally MacDonald and Michael Rice[12]
  • Fictional Cities and Towns in Egypt: Bana-Mighdall, Zerzura, Hamunaptra[13]
  • Fictional Lost Cities and Towns: Atlantis, R'lyeh, Atlantis, the Nameless City, Norumbega, Osgiliath, Opar, Charn, Kitezh, Hamunaptra[14]
  • The Horror Movie Survival Guide by Matteo Molinari[1]
  • Nobody's Perfect: Writings from The New Yorker by Anthony Lane[15]
  • Popular Culture and Representations of Literacy by Bronwyn Williams[4]
  • TLA Film, Video, and DVD Guide 2002-2003: The Discerning Film Lover's Guide by David Bleiler[16]

Music
gollark: That's kind of out of my budget, sadly.
gollark: Only with a lot of work and some weirdly specific screwdrivers or something, and only sometimes.
gollark: So I can REPLACE THE BATTERY. When it INEVITABLY DEGRADES.
gollark: It was very common two years or so back.
gollark: Also decent custom ROM support.

References
  1. Molinari, Matteo (2001). The Horror Movie Survival Guide. Penguin. ISBN 9781101203835.
  2. Schablitsky, Julie M (2012). BOX OFFICE ARCHAEOLOGY: Refining Hollywood's Portrayals of the Past. Left Coast Press. p. 29. ISBN 9781611324518.
  3. Holden, Stephen. "The Mummy". The New York Times.
  4. 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.
  9. Cowie, Susan D. (2001). The Mummy in Fact, Fiction and Film. McFarland. p. 137. ISBN 9780786431144.
  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.
  11. Pochenko (2003). Conspiracy Prophecy II. iUniverse. p. 70. ISBN 9780595264193.
  12. MacDonald, Sally (2012). Consuming Ancient Egypt. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781135393908. Retrieved 27 Oct 2014.
  13. Fictional Cities and Towns in Egypt: Bana-Mighdall, Zerzura, Hamunaptra. General Books. 2010. ISBN 9781158381760.
  14. Fictional Lost Cities and Towns: Atlantis, R'lyeh, Atlantis, the Nameless City, Norumbega, Osgiliath, Opar, Charn, Kitezh, Hamunaptra. General Books. 2010. ISBN 9781155862187.
  15. Lane, Anthony (2009). Nobody's Perfect: Writings from The New Yorker. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 9780307488879.
  16. Bleiler, David (2014). TLA Film, Video, and DVD Guide 2002-2003: The Discerning Film Lover's Guide. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 9781466867574.
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