Ancient Egypt: Gods, Afterlife, & Burial Traditions

The colossal site of Karnak is one of the largest temple complexes in the world, with an incredibly rich architectural, ritual, religious, economic, social and political history. The Amun-Ra precinct, which includes an astonishing number of individual temples, shrines and processional ways, stands as a micro-cosmos of ancient Egypt. Enter the temple precinct and discover its rich religious, political and architectural history.

Learn about each of the Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, and the myths and symbols that surround them. From Ra the sun god who created all life on earth to Isis the motherly goddess who gave birth to Horus, the ancient Egyptians worshiped a large variety of fascinating Gods.

The deities in the following gallery are just 12 out of a possible 2,000 gods and goddesses who were worshipped in ancient Egypt. Some of them were major deities wielding great religious, temporal and political power, others being not much more than demons and genies, or living creatures chosen by ordinary Egyptians to be their personal gods.

Egyptian Mythology was the belief structure and underlying form of ancient Egyptian culture from at least c. 4000 BCE (as evidenced by burial practices and tomb paintings) to 30 CE with the death of Cleopatra VII, the last of the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt. Every aspect of life in ancient Egypt was informed by the stories which related the creation of the world and the sustaining of that world by the gods.

Religion in ancient Egypt was fully integrated into the people's daily lives. The gods were present at one's birth, throughout one's life, in the transition from earthly life to the eternal, and continued their care for the soul in the afterlife of the Field of Reeds. The spiritual world was ever present in the physical world and this understanding was symbolized through images in art, architecture, in amulets, statuary, and the objects used by nobility and clergy in the performance of their duties.

Egyptian burial is the common term for the ancient Egyptian funerary rituals concerning death and the soul’s journey to the afterlife.

The Egyptian Book of the Dead is a collection of spells which enable the soul of the deceased to navigate the afterlife.

The Pyramid Texts are a collection of ancient Egyptian religious texts from the time of the Old Kingdom. Written in Old Egyptian, the pyramid texts were carved on the walls and sarcophagi of the pyramids at Saqqara during the 5th and 6th Dynasties of the Old Kingdom. The spells, or "utterances", of the pyramid texts are primarily concerned with protecting the pharaoh's remains, reanimating his body after death, and helping him ascend to the heavens, which are the emphasis of the afterlife during the Old Kingdom. The spells delineate all of the ways the pharaoh could travel, including the use of ramps, stairs, ladders, and most importantly flying. The spells could also be used to call the gods to help, even threatening them if they did not comply.