Ancient Egyptian Beliefs

For nearly 3,000 years since around 3,100 BC, Egypt held a polytheistic (multiple gods) belief system. Their sun god (variously called Amon, Re (Ra), or Aten), was considered greater than other Egyptian deity. Equally important was the Nile River. Which was Egypt's primary source of it's deep sense of order. Because of the regularity of the sun's daily cycle and the Nile's annual overflow, ancient Egyptians felt security.

Because of the sun's regular cycle of rising and setting, the ancient Egyptians perceived both the inevitability of death and the promise of birth. "The Hymn to the Aten," a song of praise probably accompanied rituals of renewal honoring Egypt's pharaoh, the divinely appointed representatives of the
(Fiero, 22) In the visual arts, rulers and gods alike were depicted with the attributes and physical features of powerful animals. Such as is the case with the Great Sphinx. A symbol of superhuman power and authority. Ancient Egyptians believed that the pharaoh on his death would join with the sun to govern Egypt eternally. (Fiero, 23) The king's corpse would be mummified and wrapped in fine linen and placed in an elaborate coffin, which was floated down the Nile to a burial site located at Gizeh and Saggara. The earliest Egyptian tombs were propably modeled on Egypt's domestic dwellings. These mud-brick tombs, called mastabas, consisted of an offering chamber room that held a statue of the dead, and a shaft that descended to the burial chamber some 100 feet below. Stacking five mastabas of decreasing size on top of one another. Imenhotep produced the impressive stepped pyramid for King Zoser (ruled around 2600 BC). The true geometric pyramid took shape with the fourth dynasty pharaohs of the Old Kingdom. (Fieor, 25) The Great Pyramid of Khufu, consists of more than two million stone blocks rising to approx. 480 feet and covering a base area of thirteen acres. The chamber walls were painted in fresco and carved in relief with images recreating the pharaoh's life on earth. Hieroglyphs formed an essential component of pictorial
The promise of life after death seems to have dominated at all levels of Egyptian culture. The Book of the Dead, a collection of funeral prayers originating as far back as 4000 BC, prepared each individual for final judgment in the presence of Osiris and Isis. (Fiero,