Ankh
ꜥnḫWhat it actually depicts
A loop over a T. What object it originally depicted is genuinely unknown: the sandal strap seen from above is the most-repeated suggestion, and it is a guess. A knot of cloth and a stylised mirror have both been argued.
What it meant
Life. It is the ordinary word, used for a living person, a lifetime, and the state of being alive, and it is also the sign for that word.
Where you see it
Held by gods, usually by the loop, and offered to the king's nose. Carried in processions. Written in every royal formula as part of 'given life'.
What gets said that is wrong
It is not a mystical object in Egyptian use and it is not a cross. It is a word, held up. The Coptic church later adopted the shape as the crux ansata, which is a real historical connection and a much later one; the modern occult associations are nineteenth century and later still.
Carried by
Other symbols