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Inscriptions on the inner walls of the Temple of Horus at Edfu (Upper Egypt). These texts preserve much older traditions in mythological form and are one of the few Egyptian sources that speak about a primordial homeland that was destroyed.
The Mythic Context
The Edfu inscriptions describe the “Island of Creation” and a series of primordial islands where the first gods and ancestors lived before Egypt itself was founded.
These islands were destroyed in a cataclysmic flood or upheaval, after which survivors migrated to the Nile Valley.
The myth frames Egypt as a rebuilt reflection of this lost homeland.
The Three Islands
The names given are symbolic and translated from hieroglyphic terms:
iw titi – “Island of Trampling”
Associated with chaos, destruction, and conflict.
Sometimes linked with mythic battles among gods or between order and disorder.
iw ‘h3 – “Island of Combat”
Represents war or divine struggle.
Possibly reflects the cosmic wars between Horus and Seth, or gods fighting the “enemies of Ra.”
iw htp – “Island of Peace”
Represents harmony and order after conflict.
Seen as the restored homeland where divine kingship and civilization were re-established.
Relation to Egyptian Cosmology
These islands are often described as lying in the “Far West”, across the waters, consistent with Egyptian myth associating the west with the realm of the dead and with primordial origins.
The texts emphasize that Egypt inherited sacred knowledge, temples, and building plans from this earlier land of the gods.
Some scholars interpret this as mythic memory of a pre-dynastic homeland. Others see it as purely symbolic, describing the eternal cycle of destruction and renewal.
Connection with Atlantis Theories
Alternative historians suggest these islands could correspond to actual sunken landmasses in the Atlantic Ocean, pointing to seamounts such as Great Meteor and the Cruiser seamounts.
The parallel is drawn with Plato’s Atlantis: a group of islands beyond the Pillars of Heracles (Gibraltar), destroyed by floods and earthquakes.
Egypt’s “inheritance” of sacred architecture (pyramids, temples) is sometimes argued to be a cultural memory of this earlier homeland.
