The ancient Egyptians tended to describe the God Amun as “hidden,” “unknowable,” or “esoteric.” His name literally means “hidden,” and this was his primary characteristic. The worship of Amun originated in Thebes and spread around the rest of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period and the New Kingdom. During this time period, Amun was fused with Ra to form Amun-Ra.

In Egyptian cosmology, the last event of creation is the first sunrise in history. The Egyptians believed that the Sun was an incarnation of the ultimate divinity and that the history of the world began with the first sunrise after creation.

Ptah is the God of creation in the tradition of Memphis. He is also the God of craftsmen. This relates to how the Memphians understood cosmology. Unlike the rest of the ancient Egyptians, the Memphians believed that Ptah acted as a sort of intermediary. It was Ptah who carried out the wishes and constructions ordained by the Gods.

Anubis was the god associated with death, mummification, and the afterlife, and he was originally depicted as the lord of the underworld; however, he was eventually replaced by Osiris, who is often called the god of death and the afterlife, but is more accurately described as the god of transition, regeneration, and resurrection. (These themes are very importantly featured in the myths about Osiris.) Since the ancient Egyptians viewed death as a transition rather than an ending, Osiris was particularly suited to fulfilling that role.

Ma'at, the central truth or justice of the Ancient Egyptian religion, was personified as a goddess whose main activity was to weigh the souls of the dead. In some earlier references she is figured as the deity who put the events of the universe into their initial order.

Hapi was the god of the annual flooding of the Nile, which was itself called the arrival of Hapi. Hapi was also a deity associated with birds and fish. Aker was the god of the earth and the horizon, and Anhur was the god of war and hunting.

In ancient Egyptian cosmology, Nu was the name given to the primordial, infinite ocean of creation that existed before the creation of the world. The Egyptians believed that Atum, the God of creation, had lived inside Nu for countless eons before he created the world from nothingness. The concept of “Nu” was an essential component of the Hermopolis interpretation of Egyptian theology.

The temples of Karnak and Luxor were both temple complexes founded in the Upper Egyptian city of Thebes. As such, they are both associated with the worship of the chief Theban God, Amun. In the latter Pharaonic period, when Pharaonic authority resided in Thebes, the God Amun was fused with Ra to form Amun-Ra, the ultimate deity in the Egyptian pantheon. Karnak and Luxor were both centers of worship throughout the dynastic period.

Originally, the Memphis Triad consisted of: Ptah (the god of Creation, architecture, and craftsmen), Sekhmet (the goddess of fire, war, and medicine, and Ptah’s wife), and Nefertem (the god of healing and beauty and the son of Ptah and Sekhmet). Together, this family of deities was worshipped as a linked group in the capital city’s temple, with offerings made to each separately and collectively. Around 525 BCE, however, the Triad morphed slightly; the Old Kingdom architect and healer Imhotep, who had been worshipped as an increasingly popular deity after his death, displaced Nefertem as the Triad’s third member. So popular and fixed was this belief that many Egyptians referred to Imhotep as the son of Ptah.

The ancient Egyptians generally understood the universe of pre-creation as the exact opposite of their own world. To early Egyptian theologians, the universe before creation was defined by inertia, darkness, and uncertainty. This was in complete contrast to their own world, which they viewed as defined by activity, light, and order.