Egyptian palmettes (Greek anthemia) were originally based on features of various flowers, including the papyrus and the lotus or lily representing lower and upper Egypt and their fertile union, before it became associated with the palm tree. From earliest times there was a strong association with the sun and it is probably an early form of the halo. Among the oldest forms of the palmette in ancient Egypt was a 'rosette' or daisy-like lotus flower[5] emerging from a 'V' of foliage or petals resembling the akhet hieroglyph depicting the setting or rising sun at the point where it touches the two mountains of the horizon – 'dying', being 'reborn' and giving life to the earth.