Religion guided every aspect of Egyptian life. Egyptian religion was based on polytheism, or the worship of many deities, except for during the reign of Akenaton. The Egyptians had as many as 2000 gods and goddesses. Some, such as Amun, were worshipped throughout the whole country, while others had only a local following. Often gods and goddesses were represented as part human and part animal.
Probably the oldest form of religious worship in Egypt was animal worship. Early Pre-Dynastic Period tribes venerated their own particular gods, who were usually embodied in a particular animal. Sometimes a whole species of animal was sacred, as cats at Bubastis. The wolf Ophois became a god of war, and the ibis Thoth became a patron of learning and the arts.
We do not know precisely how or why certain animals became associated with certain gods. Moreover, the relationship between a god and his animal varied greatly. Thoth was not only identified with the ibis, but also with the baboon and with the moon.
Just as a God could represent various natural phenomena, so could a single phenomenon be given different explanations. The Egyptian conceived of the earth as a disk, with the flat plains of Egypt as the center and the mountainous foreign lands as the rim surrounding and supporting the disk. Below were the deep waters of the underworld, and above was the plain of the sky. Several systems of cosmic deities arose to explain this natural phenomenon. Some attributed the creation of the world to the ram god Khnum, who styled the universe on his potter's wheel. Others said that creation was a spiritual and not a physical act, and that the divine thought of Ptah shaped the universe.
As Egyptian civilization advanced, deities were gradually humanized. Many were represented with human bodies (although they retained animal heads) and other human characteristics and attributes. Occasionally a god was a composite of various animals, such as Taurt, who had the head of a hippopotamus, the back and tail of a crocodile, and the claws of a lion. Only few animals of certain types were still worshiped, as the Apis bull at Memphis.
At the end of the Pre-Dynastic Period, when a combined state was created, a national religion apparently grew out of the various primitive tribal and local religions, but still there were great inconsistencies and variations as various priesthoods attempted to systematize the Gods and their myths.
The Egyptians had many tales about how the world began. According to one legend, it started with an ocean in darkness. Then a mound of dry land rose up and the sun god Re appeared. He created light and all things. Another version has the sun God emerging from a sacred blue lotus that grew out of the mud, while a third version has him appearing as a scarab beetle on the eastern horizon.
5th Dynasty - The sun cult is promoted. A sun temple is built at Abu Ghorub as well as a small pyramid at Saqqara.
The worship of Ra, the great Sun God, chief of the cosmic deities, was perhaps more closely related to the fate of the royal house than to that of the people, but his cult was nevertheless one of the most important in ancient Egypt. His symbol the pyramid became the design of the monumental tombs of the Egyptian Pharaohs. Ra was said, in fact, to be the direct ancestor of the Pharaohs of Egypt, and in certain hymns was even addressed as a dead Pharaoh. But he was more specifically thought of as a living power, whose daily cycle of birth, journey, and death was a fundamental theme in Egyptian life.
By the 11th and 12th dynasty A new religious literature appeared when Coffin Texts replaced Pyramid Texts.These texts were painted on coffins rather than pyramid walls. They were non-royal texts used by many classes of society, and reflect the increasing spread of Egyptian funerary beliefs between all classes.
By the 18th Dynasty Amun the local god of Thebes, became Egypt's greatest god, united with Ra as Amun - Ra. The high priests of Amun gain power and challenge Pharaonic authority by the late 20th Dynasty.
During the reign of Akhenaten, who based his theology on the solar God Aten and denied recognition to all but that god, a monotheistic cult was established. That unique cult apparently proved unsatisfactory to the Egyptians, after Akhenaten death, polytheism was restored.
Temples were considered dwelling places for the Gods. They were everywhere. Each city had a temple built for the God of that city. The purpose of the temple was to be a cosmic center by which men had communication with the Gods. As the priests became more powerful, tombs became a part of great temples.The priests duty was to care for the Gods and attend to their needs. The priests had many duties such as funeral rites, teaching school, supervising the artists and works, and advising people on problems. Only members of the priesthood was allowed to enter beyond the outer court. The ordinary person had to stop there, and when they brought offerings, it was taken care of by a priest who carried it into the temple. All temples were surrounded by a wall and in the outside of this there were a hole or a window to which one could come and whisper their prayers or questions or leave a note with some words scribbled on it. The priest who was on duty then took care of the note in order to bring the words in front of the Gods.
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