Egyptian Gods You Will See on Temple Walls

About a dozen gods account for most of what you will see carved on Egypt's temple walls, and you can recognize them by headdress, animal form, and the temple they live in: Amun with two tall plumes at Karnak, Hathor with cow horns and a sun disc at Dendera, Horus the falcon at Edfu, Isis with her throne sign at Philae, and Sobek the crocodile at Kom Ombo. Learn those, plus Osiris, Anubis, Thoth, Khnum, Ptah, Sekhmet, and Ra, and the scenes stop looking like a wall of identical figures.

Egyptian religion was local before it was national. Each city had its own patron god, often grouped with a consort and a child into a family of three, and the great temples were literally that god's house, where priests fed, clothed, and honored a cult statue every day. The scenes on the walls mostly show one thing over and over: the king making offerings to the gods, and the gods giving him life, power, and a long reign in return. Once you know who is receiving the offering, you know whose house you are standing in.

How to recognize a god on a temple wall

Most gods are shown with a human body and either a human head with a distinctive crown or the head of their sacred animal. A few clues do most of the work.

Headdresses and crowns

• Two tall feathers: Amun, the king of the gods at Thebes.
• Sun disc between cow horns: Hathor, or Isis in later temples, which can be confusing; check the inscription or the temple.
• Throne-shaped sign on the head: Isis, whose name is written with that sign.
• Tall white crown with a feather on each side (the atef): Osiris.
• Vulture headdress with a double crown: Mut, wife of Amun.
• Moon disc and crescent: Khonsu, the moon god and son of Amun and Mut.

Animal heads

Color and pose

Osiris is often painted green or black, colors of new growth and fertile Nile mud, and is shown wrapped like a mummy holding the crook and flail. Ptah is also wrapped and holds a straight scepter, but wears a close-fitting skullcap instead of a crown. If a figure holds an ankh, the sign of life, toward the king's face, you are looking at a god granting life, not a human.

The Theban family at Karnak and Luxor

Amun, whose name means something like "the hidden one," rose from a local god of Thebes to a leading deity of New Kingdom Egypt. Merged with the sun as Amun-Ra, he is usually shown as a man with twin plumes, sometimes with blue skin, and occasionally in a fertility form, Amun-Min, standing with one arm raised. His wife Mut and their son Khonsu complete the Theban triad.

Karnak was their vast estate, with separate precincts for Amun, Mut, and the war god Montu. Luxor Temple, about three kilometers south, was where the cult statues traveled each year during the Opet festival, carried in sacred boats along the avenue of sphinxes or by river. On the walls of Luxor Temple's colonnade you can follow that procession: priests carrying portable shrines, musicians, acrobats, and crowds. In Karnak's Great Hypostyle Hall, look for the sacred boat of Amun carried on poles; it tells you a festival is under way.

Osiris, Isis, and Horus: the story behind the tombs

A very useful story to know before your trip is the Osiris myth. Osiris was a good king murdered by his jealous brother Set. His wife Isis searched for his body, reassembled it with the help of her sister Nephthys and Anubis, and conceived their son Horus. Osiris became ruler of the dead, and Horus grew up to defeat Set and claim the throne of Egypt.

That story explains a great deal of what you will see:

• Every living king was "a Horus," the rightful heir, which is why the falcon appears so often in royal imagery.
• Every dead king became Osiris, which is why royal statues in tombs and temples are often shown wrapped and holding the crook and flail.
• Anubis, who embalmed Osiris, presides over mummification and guides the dead.
• Thoth, the ibis-headed scribe, records the result when the heart of the deceased is weighed against the feather of Maat, goddess of truth and order.

You will find this cycle at Abydos, the cult center of Osiris; at Philae, the temple of Isis near Aswan; and at Edfu, where the walls of the Temple of Horus show his battle with Set, with Set shown as a hippopotamus being harpooned. Philae is also known as one of the last places where the old religion was practiced, with worship generally said to have ended in the 6th century AD.

Gods of the Nile cruise route

A cruise between Luxor and Aswan is, among other things, a tour of local gods. Each stop has its own household.

Dendera: Hathor

Hathor, goddess of love, music, joy, and motherhood, is shown as a woman with cow horns and a sun disc, or with a human face and cow's ears. At Dendera, north of Luxor, the column capitals of the hypostyle hall are carved with her face. She also carried the sistrum, a rattle used in temple music, and you will see it shaking in her honor on walls throughout Egypt.

Esna and Elephantine: Khnum

Khnum, the ram-headed creator, was believed to shape every person on a potter's wheel. His temple at Esna, which many cruise ships now visit while waiting at the Esna lock, has a hypostyle hall whose painted ceiling has been cleaned in recent years. At Elephantine Island in Aswan, he formed a triad with Satet and Anuket, goddesses of the First Cataract and the annual flood.

Edfu: Horus

The Temple of Horus at Edfu is very well preserved. Two granite falcons stand at the entrance, and the god's story fills the walls. Here Horus is paired with Hathor, who traveled from Dendera each year for a festival of their sacred marriage.

Kom Ombo: Sobek and Haroeris

Kom Ombo is a double temple with two parallel entrances and two sanctuaries. The southern half belongs to Sobek, the crocodile god, and the northern half to Haroeris, Horus the Elder. A small museum on site displays mummified crocodiles, a reminder that sacred animals were raised and buried at many cult centers.

Memphis, the Delta, and the sun

Ptah, creator god of Memphis, was believed to have brought the world into being through thought and speech. He is shown as a mummy-wrapped man with a skullcap and scepter. His consort Sekhmet, a lioness, brought plague and could also cure it; dozens of her granite statues survive from the reign of Amenhotep III, and you will see examples at Karnak and in Egypt's museums. Bastet, the cat goddess of Bubastis in the Delta, appears mostly in small bronze figures.

The sun was worshipped in several forms. Ra is the sun at its height, usually shown as a falcon-headed man with a sun disc; Ra-Horakhty combines Ra and Horus as the morning sun; Atum is the setting sun and creator; and Khepri, the scarab beetle, pushes the sun up at dawn. In tombs in the Valley of the Kings, you will see the sun god's night journey through the underworld in his boat. Akhenaten's brief experiment with the Aten, the sun disc with rays ending in hands, is easy to spot in museum reliefs from Amarna. At Abu Simbel, a figure of Ra-Horakhty stands in a niche above the entrance of the Great Temple, which is dedicated to Amun, Ra-Horakhty, Ptah, and the deified Ramesses II.

How to read an offering scene in 30 seconds

Most temple scenes follow the same formula, so a quick routine works almost everywhere:

1. Find the king. He usually wears a royal crown, a kilt, and a uraeus cobra on the forehead, and his name sits in a cartouche nearby.
2. Find who he faces. The figure facing him, often seated or holding a scepter and ankh, is the god.
3. Check what he offers. Incense, wine, flowers, cloth, or a small figure of Maat, which means he is offering order itself.
4. Read the god's clues. Headdress, animal head, or the god's own small inscription tell you the name.

A good Egyptologist guide will point out where the same god appears in different roles across a temple, and how later rulers, including the Ptolemies and Roman emperors, are shown in exactly the same pharaonic pose.

Frequently asked questions

Who is the main god at Karnak?

Amun, later Amun-Ra, with his wife Mut and son Khonsu. Karnak was their estate for centuries, and the largest precinct belongs to Amun. Separate areas were dedicated to Mut and to the war god Montu.

Why is Osiris shown with green skin?

Green and black stood for regeneration and the fertile soil left by the Nile flood. Osiris was the god of resurrection, so the color signals new life after death. You will also see him wrapped like a mummy with the crook and flail.

Which temple is dedicated to Isis?

Philae, on an island near Aswan, is the great temple of Isis. It was moved to its present island during the UNESCO campaign of the 1960s and 1970s. It is often visited by boat on the first or last day of a cruise.

How can I tell Hathor and Isis apart?

In earlier art Isis wears the throne-shaped sign and Hathor the cow horns and sun disc, but in later temples Isis often borrows Hathor's crown. When in doubt, check the inscription or the temple you are in: Dendera belongs to Hathor, Philae to Isis.

Do I need to know the gods before visiting the temples?

Not in detail, but knowing six or seven of them makes a guided visit much richer. Learning the Osiris story and the Theban family covers most of what you will see between Luxor and Aswan.

Plan it with Nourbelle

If you would like a guide who brings these stories to life, look at our Nile cruises and Egypt tours, or tell us about your trip and a specialist will suggest a route.