Egyptian Gods and Where Their Temples Still Stand

Ancient Egypt had over 2,000 named gods. You do not need to learn them all. About twelve show up on almost every temple wall you will ever visit, and once you can recognise them, every temple in the country becomes readable.

Here is the working set — who they are, what they do, and where you can still see them worshipped in stone. Before you go, see our complete history of ancient Egypt and Egypt travel guide.

Ra: the sun god

Ra rules the sun and, by extension, the entire cosmic order. Every morning he is born in the east, sails across the sky in his solar barque, and dies in the west, where he spends the night battling the serpent Apophis in the underworld before being reborn. He is usually shown as a man with a falcon’s head crowned with the sun disc.

Ra later merges with the Theban god Amun to become Amun-Ra, the composite god of the New Kingdom. The temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak is his greatest surviving monument — the largest religious building ever constructed anywhere. The hypostyle hall alone has 134 columns, some 21 metres tall.

Osiris, Isis and Horus: the family that runs the afterlife

The most famous Egyptian myth. Osiris, god of the afterlife, is murdered and dismembered by his jealous brother Set. His wife Isis reassembles his body (except for one piece the fish ate, which she replaces with a golden phallus), conceives a son by the reconstituted Osiris, and hides in the marshes to raise the boy in secret. That son is Horus, who grows up to fight Set and reclaim the throne.

Every pharaoh is Horus in life and Osiris in death. Every dead Egyptian hopes to become “an Osiris” (i.e. reborn) after judgment.

Isis becomes one of the most widely worshipped gods in the ancient Mediterranean. Her cult spreads to Greece, Rome, Britain and Germany. Her temple on the island of Philae near Aswan (moved to Agilkia island in the 1970s to save it from Lake Nasser) is the last place in the ancient world where hieroglyphic inscriptions were still being carved — the final one dates to 394 AD.

Anubis: the god of embalming

Jackal-headed, black-skinned, associated with cemeteries. Anubis is the god who oversees mummification and guides the dead through the underworld. Priests performing embalming actually wore jackal-headed masks — one has survived, in the Roemer- und Pelizaeus Museum in Hildesheim.

You will see Anubis over doorways in the Valley of the Kings and on almost every mummy case.

Thoth: the scribe of the gods

Ibis-headed, sometimes shown as a baboon. Thoth is the god of writing, wisdom, mathematics and the moon. He records the outcome of the weighing of the heart at the judgment of the dead. When you see a bird-headed man with a scribe’s palette on a tomb wall, that is Thoth taking notes on how the deceased is faring.

His main cult centre was Hermopolis in Middle Egypt, mostly in ruins today. Later Greeks identified him with Hermes and rebuilt part of the temple.

Hathor: the goddess of joy

Cow-headed, or a woman with cow horns holding the sun disc. Hathor is the goddess of love, music, dance, motherhood and drunkenness (yes, really). She is also the mother-figure to the pharaoh, and every pharaoh is her divine son.

Her greatest surviving temple is at Dendera, about an hour north of Luxor. The complete ceiling painting of the night sky, restored between 2018 and 2023, is one of the most photographable single rooms in Egypt. This is also where you find one of the only carved portraits of Cleopatra VII, on the rear outside wall.

Set: the god of chaos

Red-headed, with an unidentifiable animal’s head. Set is the god of storms, deserts, foreign lands and chaos — everything outside the orderly Nile valley. He murdered his brother Osiris, but he also defends Ra’s solar barque against Apophis every night. In New Kingdom art he is a hero. In later Egyptian art he becomes closer to a devil figure.

Ramses II’s father was named Seti — “man of Set” — a reminder that Set was a legitimate god of the pharaoh for most of Egyptian history. Set’s main cult centre was at Ombos in the desert, mostly gone today.

Ptah: the craftsman god

Human-shaped, wrapped like a mummy, holding a scepter. Ptah is the creator god of Memphis (the original capital) and the patron god of craftsmen. In some Memphite theology, Ptah created the world by thinking it and speaking it — a striking idea about 3,000 years before the Gospel of John says something similar.

His main temple is largely gone under modern Mit Rahina south of Cairo, but a colossus of Ramses II lies inside a museum on the site.

Sobek: the crocodile god

Crocodile-headed. Sobek is a god of the Nile and its dangers, associated with fertility and military power. His two great surviving temples are at Kom Ombo (south of Luxor, on the Nile), where crocodile mummies have been excavated by the hundred, and Medinet el-Fayum, which was a major Ptolemaic centre.

Bes: the household god

Dwarf-shaped, ugly, with a lion’s mane and tongue sticking out. Bes has no great temple but is everywhere in ordinary Egyptian houses. He protects women in childbirth and children in general. If you see a small ugly protective figure carved into a bedstead or an amulet, that is Bes.

Where to actually see them

A single Nile cruise between Luxor and Aswan hits almost every major god:

• Karnak (Luxor): Amun-Ra, Mut, Khonsu
• Luxor temple: Amun-Ra in his fertility form
• Deir el-Bahari: Hathor + Amun
• Dendera (north of Luxor): Hathor
• Esna: Khnum (ram-headed creator god)
• Edfu: Horus — best-preserved temple in Egypt
• Kom Ombo: Sobek + Horus, unique double temple
• Philae (Aswan): Isis
• Abu Simbel: Ra-Horakhty, Amun, Ptah + the deified Ramses II himself

See our Nile cruise guide for how to see them all in one trip, and the best time to visit Egypt for timing.

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