Hello, I am currently collaborating with others to create an Urban myth and hauntings magazine around London and would love if anyone would spare some time for a one minute survey about what they're interested in and if its something they would enjoy.

It would help a lot with market research for developing this magazine:

How interested are you in Urban Myths? – Fill in form

I hope you like this post, my sincere regards from Egypt ...

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This list presents the pharaohs and queens of Ancient Egypt as preserved in medieval Arabian and Coptic literature. It is a composite of Manetho transmitted through Christian chronographers, Qur’anic and Biblical sacred history, Coptic folklore, and popular legend.

It reflects a long chain of translation and linguistic mediation: from ancient Egyptian into Greek, then into Coptic during Greco-Roman period in Egypt, and finally into Arabic in the medieval period.

The list does not claim complete historical authenticity; it is just an attempt to show how ancient Egyptian rulers were transformed into legendary and religious names in Coptic Arabic memory.

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Arabian sources:

1. Futuh Misr wa al-Maghrib (The Conquest of Egypt and the Maghreb)

— Ibn Abd al-Hakam (c. 801–871 CE)

1. Muruj al-Dhahab wa Kitab Al-Tarikh (Meadows of Gold and Book of History)

— Al-Masudi (Herodotus of Arabs) (c. 896–956 CE)

1. Mujam al-Buldan (Lexicon of Countries)

— Yaqut al-Hamawi (c. 1179–1229 CE)

1. Al-Nujum al-Zahira fi Muluk Misr wa al-Qahira (The Shining Stars Concerning the Kings of Egypt and Cairo)

— Ibn Taghribirdi (c. 1411–1470 CE)

1. Husn al-Muhadara fi Tarikh Misr wa al-Qahira (The Agreeable Discussion of the History of Egypt and Cairo)

— Al-Suyuti (c. 1445–1505 CE)

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The Arabic name Misr - Masr (مصر)

Misr is an ancient Semitic name, not originally Egyptian: it appears in Akkadian as Musur and Hebrew as Mizraim or Mitsrayim, likely meaning "settled land" or "protected borderland." Pre-Islamic Arabs used it, and it became the standard Arabic name for Egypt, while the ancient Egyptians called their land Kemet ("Black Land"). In religious tradition, the name is linked to Misrayim, son of Ham son of Noah, the biblical ancestor of the Egyptians.

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The Antediluvian Pyramid Builders (Before biblical flood)

Khaslim (خصليم)

Khaslim is an early legendary king of Egypt credited with building a Nilometer. He placed two bronze eagles—male and female—at the site. Priests read incantations; if the male eagle whistled, the Nile flood would be good and high, but if the female whistled, the flood would be disastrous and drought would follow.

Etymology and reasoning: The name Khaslim may be an alteration of Khasekhemwy (Egyptian Ḫʿsḫmwy). The reasoning is phonetic but weak: the consonantal skeleton kh-s-kh-m could be reduced and reshaped in Coptic/Arabic transmission as kh-s-l-m, with l replacing the second kh. The identification is supported mainly by narrative structure: Khasekhemwy was an early Memphite ruler associated with unification and control of the Nile, and Arabic tradition assigns Nilometers and waterworks to early kings.

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Surid ibn Salhuq (سوريد بن سلهوق)

In Arabian literature, Surid is the great antediluvian king of Egypt who foresaw the Flood in a dream and ordered the building of the Pyramids of Giza to preserve knowledge and serve as his tomb. He is often linked with Idris/Enoch or Hermes Trismegistus.

Historical identification: Khufu (Cheops), builder of the Great Pyramid.

Etymology and reasoning: The identification is phonetic. Surid maybe was derived from Souphis, which is the name the Egyptian historan Manetho gave for Khufu.

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Hujib (هوجيب)

In the same tradition, Hujib is the brother of Surid and is said to be buried in the second, western pyramid at Giza.

Historical identification: Khafre (Chephren), builder of the second pyramid.

Etymology and reasoning: The identification rests mainly on structural mapping. Arabic tradition assigns the three Giza pyramids to a father/brother/son sequence.

Historically, the second pyramid belongs to Khafre, a son of Khufu. The name Hujib is maybe altered from Hotep, but its narrative role as second pyramid builder and royal relative fixes the identification with Khafre.

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Karuras (كروراس)

In Arabian literature, Karuras is the son of Hujib and is buried in the third, smaller pyramid at Giza, often called the “Colored Pyramid.”

Historical identification: Menkaure (Mycerinus), builder of the third pyramid at Giza.

Etymology and reasoning: The structural reason is decisive: Arabic tradition makes the third pyramid belong to the son of the second pyramid’s builder. Historically, the third pyramid belongs to Menkaure, son of Khafre (Hujib) and grandson of Khufu (Surid).

Manetho’s form was Menkheres. In the long oral and written transmission, the initial Men- was lost or weakened, and the remaining consonants (kheres / kherres) were reshaped in Arabic as Karuras.

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After the Flood

Tutis (طوطيس)

The first of the Pharaohs of Egypt and the Pharaoh of Abraham. He tried to seduce Sarah, Abraham's wife; his hand withered when he reached for her, and after repenting he returned her and gave her Hagar as a maidservant who bore him Ishmael, the father of Arabs. Some versions say he embraced Abraham's faith.

Historical identification: Proposed candidates include Sanakht (Third Dynasty) and Nebkaure Khety IV (Tenth Dynasty), but he appears in no ancient Egyptian king-list.

Etymology and reasoning: The name has been linked to the Egyptian Taautos or Tet/Teta, and to a suggested Semitic root meaning "to light" or "set on fire." The reasoning is phonetic and comparative, not a direct derivation. The tradition also explains the title "Pharaoh" itself: Ṭūṭīs was the first called Pharaoh because he was cruel and bloody. 

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Joryaq (جورياق)

According to Arab historian al-Maqrizi, Joryaq was the daughter of the first Pharaoh, Tutis, and seized the throne after killing her father Tutis. She is described as a powerful ruler who promoted priests and magicians. Joryaq ruled Egypt after her father Toutis, and in her reign, the Amalekite king of Syria sent an army against Egypt led by Jirun, but in the (alternative) version, it is more likely that the Amalekite "Al-Walid bin Dum'a" was the one who invaded Egypt.

Historical identification: No single historical counterpart. She may be a legendary composite drawing on memory of figures such as Nitocris or Sobekneferu.

Etymology and reasoning: The name does not correspond to any known Egyptian queen’s name and appears to be a literary invention within the Arabic legendary cycle.

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The Amalekite / Hyksos Dynasty

Al-Walid ibn Duma' (الوليد بن دومع)

In Arabic chronicles, al-Walid ibn Duma' is the first of five Amalekite kings who ruled Egypt after its native rulers weakened. He is described as a Syrian conqueror who ruled for about a hundred years before being killed by a wild beast.

Historical identification: No direct Egyptian counterpart. He is best understood as a legendary refraction of the Hyksos period, when foreign rulers from the Levant controlled Egypt.

Etymology and reasoning: The name Duma' has no Egyptian etymological root. Arabic tradition remembers a Syrian conqueror founding a foreign dynasty, which mirrors the Hyksos takeover. The name itself is likely derived from a real Hyksos pharaoh name. especially since Arabs thought that Amalekites were the Hyksos and thought of them as one of the "The Extinct Arabs". So it is not strange that he got an Arabic name

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Al-Rayyan ibn al-Walid (الريان بن الوليد) sometimes called Nahraus (نهراوس)

Al-Rayyan succeeds his father and is remembered as the Pharaoh of Joseph. He is presented as a just ruler who appointed Joseph over the granaries and eventually embraced his monotheistic faith.

Historical identification: Apepi (Apophis) or Khyan, a Hyksos kings.

Etymology and reasoning: The name al-Rayyan has a strong, monumentally attested phonetic link to the name Ra-i-a-n associated with the Hyksos king Apepi. The alternative name Nahraus has been linked, on phonetic grounds, to the Hyksos king Khyan according to the modern Egyptian scholar Ahmad Kamal. Kamal read the cartouche of the Hyksos king Khyan as Ne Re Ous and argued this is the origin of Arabic Nahraus.

The Hyksos-era setting also fits the prophet Joseph story.

The Wadi Al-Rayyan nature reserve in Fayoum is said to be named after Al-Rayyan ibn al-Walid, based on a legend where the king and his army sat down there to rest.

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Darim ibn al-Rayyan (دارم بن الريان)

Darim succeeds his father al-Rayyan. Arabic sources say prophet Joseph died during his reign.

Historical identification: No direct historical counterpart (Maybe unknown Hyksos king)

Etymology and reasoning: The name Darim has no known Egyptian royal root. It appears to be a literary/genealogical invention bridging Pharaoh al-Rayyan and the later Pharaoh of Moses.

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Kaimis ibn Ma'dan (كامس بن معدان)

Kaimis is the fourth Amalekite king in this sequence, ruling after Darim and before the Pharaoh of Moses.

Historical identification: No direct historical counterpart.

Etymology and reasoning: Like Darim, the name has no Egyptian etymological root. It functions as a narrative placeholder in the Arabic king-list.

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Al-Walid ibn Mus'ab (الوليد بن مصعب)

This is the name most commonly given to the Pharaoh of Moses, the archetypal tyrant who opposed prophets Moses and Aaron, and oppressed the Israelites and was drowned in the Red Sea during his chasing of them with his counselors and army.

Historical identification: Most widespread identification is Ramesses II, though Merneptah and Thutmose III are also mentioned. But some say that the Pharaoh of Moses was a Hyksos or Amalekite.

Etymology and reasoning: The reasoning is not etymological, since the name is Arabic. It rests on narrative convergence: Arabic tradition places the Exodus in a period of monumental building and imperial power, matching the Ramesside era. The Qur’anic phrase "dhu al-awtad" (“possessor of the stakes”) has been linked by some to obelisks and massive constructions of Ramesses II. also in the Bible in Exodus 1:11, which states: "So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh."

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Queen Figures Around the Exodus

Assiya (آسية)

Assiya in Islamic tradition is the righteous wife of Pharaoh who secretly believes in God, rescues the infant Moses from the Nile, and is venerated as one of the four perfect women. She is a figure of faith and moral resistance within Pharaoh’s household.

Historical identification: She is a theological and literary archetype, not a specific historical queen.

Etymology and reasoning: The name Asiya is Arabic and serves a moral and salvific purpose in the Qur’anic story. No etymological link to a historical Egyptian queen is intended.

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Daluka (دلوكة)

Daluka is a legendary warrior-queen who rules Egypt after the drowning of the Pharaoh of Moses. She is credited with building a massive wall around Egypt, the “Wall of the Old Woman,” and with constructing the Lighthouse of Alexandria and a Nilometer at Memphis.

Historical identification: Tausret (Tawosret), last ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty.

Etymology and reasoning: The reasoning is literary preservation of memory. Tausret’s reign was remembered into the tenth century CE in Egyptian tradition, and in Arabic chronicles she appears as Daluqa. The name Daluka is a transformation of Tausret through oral and written transmission. The legendary elaboration is secondary; the core identification rests on continuity of a female royal memory from the New Kingdom into Islamic-era literature.

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Al-Maqrizi’s Later Dynastic List

Al-Maqrizi preserves twenty-seven “Coptic kings” said to have reigned after Daluka. Their names are altered transmissions of Manetho’s list. Examples include Sumanas (possibly Sneferu), Sesunakhosis (Senusret), and Uafris (Apries).

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The End ...

The legend of The Blackstone Automaton—better known in local circles as the Rhode Island Mecha-Scorpion or The Blackstone Stinger, is a modern urban myth deeply rooted in the state’s rich industrial history. 

According to late-night internet forums and whispered stories among urban explorers, the creature’s origins date back to the late 19th century during Providence's boom as a jewelry and machinery superpower. The story goes that a brilliant but reclusive clockmaker working out of a hidden sub-basement along the Blackstone River attempted to build a self-sustaining mechanical guardian to protect the mills from thieves. Using clockwork gears, heavy brass plating, and early electrical currents, the inventor built a specialized automaton shaped like a scorpion. He chose the arachnid form for its stability on uneven terrain and its natural defensive capabilities. The project was allegedly funded by a secret society of wealthy industrialists, but it was abruptly abandoned during the Panic of 1893 when the clockmaker vanished from the public eye, leaving his creation trapped beneath the foundations of an abandoned mill.

The legend evolves in the late 1990s and early 2000s with the rise of Rhode Island’s tech and arts counterculture. According to modern variations of the myth, a group of RISD students and underground hackers discovered the flooded, sealed basement of the old foundry. Inside, they found the rusted, brass chassis of the scorpion. Instead of leaving it, they treated it as the ultimate DIY project. Over several years, various anonymous engineers upgraded the Stinger. They replaced the decaying clockwork with an experimental self sustaining atomic generator, a hydraulic stinger with electric shock capabilities, a reinforced chassis, modern microprocessors, and shock absorbent pneumatic legs. They also added an early machine-learning script designed to let the robot map out its environment and hide from humans. The legend says the hackers lost control of the machine during an illegal test run in the abandoned East Side Railroad Tunnel beneath Providence. The AI framework worked too well—the scorpion developed a primitive survival instinct, slipped into the subterranean drainage systems, and escaped.

Appearance and Anatomy:

Those who claim to have caught a glimpse of the creature describe a terrifying amalgamation of antique Victorian craftsmanship and modern industrial scrap metal:

The Hull: A three-foot-long, large dog-sized segmented body made of tarnished, salt-crusted brass and silver, gleaming oxidized steel.

The Eyes: A cluster of flickering, infrared lenses salvaged from old security cameras that glow a faint, dull red in total darkness.

The Claws: Heavy, pneumatic pincers originally designed for assembly-line welding, capable of snapping through chain-link fences and other obstacles.

The Stinger: A modified high-voltage copper probe. Local teenagers swear it can discharge enough electricity to blow out nearby streetlights.

The Sound: Witnesses say you always hear it before you see it—a rhythmic, metallic clicking of steel legs on concrete, followed by the low, pressurized hiss of escaping hydraulic fluid.

Alleged Sightings and Hotspots: 

The robotic scorpion is rarely seen in broad daylight, as its programming dictates it avoid human interaction. However, several specific locations in Rhode Island are considered hotspots for sightings: 

The East Side Railroad Tunnel (Providence): The most famous location. Passersby near the blocked entrances report hearing a frantic, metallic scratching echoing from deep inside the sealed tunnel.

The Banks of the Blackstone River (Pawtucket): Anglers fishing late at night have reported seeing a strange, dome-shaped object swimming just beneath the water's surface, leaving a faint oily sheen and a trail of tiny bubbles.

The Abandoned Industrial Traces of Allens Avenue: Workers at the shipping ports have occasionally claimed to see a multi-legged shape scurrying across the scrap yards in the dead of night, hunting for copper wire and discarded batteries to "feed" its power supply.

The Local Superstition: 

Unlike malicious cryptids, the robotic scorpion isn't viewed as an aggressive monster, but rather as a highly territorial animal acting on corrupted code. Local urban explorers leave a strange offering at the entrances of abandoned buildings—old AA batteries or broken computer circuit boards. They believe that if you leave a "gift" of electronics, the Blackstone Automaton will accept the parts for self-repair and leave you alone while you explore its domain.

According to Legend: November 1, 1776, a Continental Army cannon—fired by Lieutenant Ephraim Fenno under the command of American Major General William Heath—shot a cannonball that decapitated a Hessian. This battle took place in White Plains, New York, about 10 miles south of Sleepy Hollow. Some local research and folklore have tried to connect the artilleryman to a Hessian soldier named Heinrich Range, though historical records remain sparse. Local lore says the headless body of the Hessian soldier was recovered and buried in an unmarked grave in the cemetery of the historic Old Dutch Church in Sleepy Hollow. It is said that Washington Irving visited the Tarrytown area in 1798, where he heard local Dutch folklore about the galloping spirit and wove it into his famous fiction.

anybody think this is def CGI

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WHO IS SHE? no one can identify this enigmatic supernatural entity….. 👻👻👻

I first heard about the Tuyul when I was a child. My grandmother described it as a tiny, bald goblin with pale skin, oversized ears, and the body of a little child.

At first, I thought it was just another Indonesian bedtime story, something adults told to scare children into behaving.

But as I grew older, I began to understand why people feared this creature.

According to local folklore, the Tuyul is a supernatural goblin that can be summoned by someone who desires wealth. Unlike ordinary goblins that collect gold, the Tuyul steals money directly from other people's homes.

Imagine waking up one morning, checking your wallet, and discovering that some of your money has mysteriously disappeared. No broken doors. No signs of a robbery. Nothing.

Now imagine this happening repeatedly.

In Indonesian belief, some people claim that a Tuyul could be responsible. Small enough to move unnoticed, this creature is said to slip through houses at night, searching for money while its master waits for the stolen fortune.

But the most disturbing part is not the theft itself.

It is the belief that the Tuyul is not simply a creature you command. It is a supernatural servant that requires care, attention, and a mysterious bond with its owner.

Some say that behind sudden, unexplained wealth, there may be a dark secret hidden from everyone else.

Personally, I cannot say whether the Tuyul truly exists. Perhaps it is nothing more than folklore, passed down through generations.

Still, there is something unsettling about the idea of a tiny goblin wandering through your house while you sleep, watching you from the darkness.

And if you ever wake up to find money missing from your wallet, perhaps you should check the locked doors first.

But what if every door is still locked?

Juliette Bryant, a former Epstein accuser, claimed that during an encounter with Jeffrey Epstein, his face changed. She described his face becoming enlarged, his eyes turning completely black, dragon-like horns appearing, and a holographic-like flicker occurring. She said she was not on drugs and claimed she saw him shapeshift into what she described as a “reptilian, devil-like creature.”

Billy Corgan from The Smashing Pumpkins has described an experience where he saw “a transformation that I can’t explain.” When asked whether the person changed into something other than human, he said yes. He said he was completely sober and compared it to turning around and suddenly finding “somebody else standing there.” According to Corgan, the person apparently acknowledged what had happened but wouldn't explain it. He has deliberately remained vague about the story, calling it one of the most intense experiences of his life and a “really messed up story.”

Robbie Williams claimed he once saw a woman he was in bed with transform into a reptilian.

During a March 2026 appearance on the Melbourne radio show Fifi, Fev & Nick, he said that while he was lying in bed looking at the woman's face, her face turned into what he could only describe as a reptilian. He said she then looked at him and told him, “I’m not a reptilian.

Over the mouth of the Catatumbo River in Venezuela, where it meets Lake Maracaibo, there’s a storm that almost never stops. On as many as 260 nights a year it produces near-continuous lightning for up to 9–10 hours at a stretch, sometimes hundreds of strikes an hour. It’s so reliable that it has a name, the Beacon of Maracaibo, and for centuries sailors used it as a natural lighthouse to navigate by. There are even claims it helped foil at least one night-time naval attack by silhouetting the approaching ships.

What makes it a proper “myth that’s actually real” is how long people have known about it and how little it was understood. It turns up in a 16th-century Spanish epic poem. Local legends tie it to everything from fireflies to souls of the dead to the breath of the earth. The leading scientific explanation involves the specific collision of warm, moist air off the lake with cold air spilling down from the Andes, but the exact mechanism is still debated, and the storm has even gone quiet for months at a time (famously during a drought around 2010) before returning, which spooked locals who’d assumed it was eternal.

A few other “the planet is behaving strangely” ones in the same vein, if people want a rabbit hole: the Hessdalen lights in Norway (unexplained glowing orbs appearing in one valley since the 1980s), the “singing” / booming sand dunes that resonate at specific frequencies, and the Boiling River of the Peruvian Amazon, a four-mile stretch of river that runs hot enough to kill anything that falls in.

Anyone know others like this, places where nature does something so regular and strange that locals built myths around it long before science caught up?

When I watch stuff like the Snowden movie it just makes me laugh.. imagine that there are files located somewhere cataloging individuals and what they do on there phones,via web traffic and video monitoring. That means there's probably a file,with videos on all the times you were using your phone while shitting,some one probably can just meet someone and be like,lemme see what he does on the toilet 🤣

We have to pick a pre existing non-western myth, can be religious or not. and then identify the space it belongs to, and the semiotics in it. and also identify the machine it is being produced in.

This story always gave me chills as a kid, but i can't find anything about this rumor on the internet, heard it somewhere in the 2000s.

Side note edit, im not intending to convince anyone if gaint spiders are real or not, im just want to know more about where this particular rumor that i remembered as a kid originated from and if anyone has ever heard of it before.

So this story as i remember goes as follows:

In the 90s a large passenger plane was shot down shortly after departing an African airport.The aircraft crashed in dense jungle, and the wreckage was not located until the following day. All aboard were reported dead. But allegedly some disturbing things were found. Not all the bodies ever were recovered, and on some of the remains that were found, there were injuries that investigators struggled to explain. A few bodies had enormous "spider bites" but far larger than any known species. Allegedly there were claimes that the aircraft had come down in an area avoided by locals. Because it was said to inhabbit giant, man-eating spiders living in the the jungle.

Sooo the story basicly says.. giant spiders mutilated and took bodies from a crash site

It most probably revolvs around the 1998 Congo Airlines Boeing 727 crash in Kindu. And "gaint man-eating spiders" sound like the infamous Congolese J'ba Fofi stories. But again, just want to know if anyone knows about it.

Central Florida has a local legend about a stretch of Interstate 4 near Lake Monroe, between Sanford and DeBary, known as the I-4 Dead Zone.

The story is often connected to St. Joseph’s Colony, a nineteenth-century German immigrant settlement. According to the legend, several colonists died of yellow fever and were buried in the area, and their graves were never properly relocated before the interstate was built. Over the years, the story has picked up additional details about the road being haunted, unexplained disturbances, and strange occurrences.

What interests me is how the legend blends local history, a specific landscape, and stories passed from one retelling to another. Some of the historical details are disputed, so I’m curious about which parts of the story have older sources and which may have developed more recently.

I wrote a Southern Gothic horror novel, Dead Zone, inspired in part by Central Florida’s landscape and the way local histories and legends can shape our sense of a place. If you’re interested, it’s available here: https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Zone-H-P-Reed-ebook/dp/B0HMWYSH4H

Has anyone else come across this legend? I’d be interested in how you first heard about it, how the version you know differs from other tellings, or whether you’ve found reliable sources tracing its origins.