Ancient Egyptian religion was a complex system of polytheistic beliefs and rituals that formed an integral part of

ancient Egyptian society. It centered on the Egyptians' interaction with many deities believed to be present in, and in
control of, the world. Rituals such as prayer and offerings were provided to the gods to gain their favor . for the
egypthians heaven and hell are known as Auru and hell as Duat. The ancient Egyptians believed that the soul resides
in the heart, and so, upon death, the Weighing of the Heart occurred.

The souls who qualify undergo a long journey and face many perils before reaching Aaru. Once they arrive, they enter
through a series of gates. The exact number of gates varies according to sources; some say 15, some 21. They are
uniformly described as guarded by evil demons armed with knives. Aaru is also known as the home of Osiris.

Aaru usually was placed in the east where the Sun rises, and described as boundless reed fields, like those of the
earthly Nile Delta. This ideal hunting and farming ground allowed the souls here to live for eternity. More precisely,
Aaru was envisaged as a series of islands covered in fields of rushes. The part where Osiris later dwelt is sometimes
known as the "field of offerings", Sekhet Hetepet in Egyptian.

The duat

The god Osiris was believed to be the lord of the underworld since he personified rebirth and life after death, being
the first mummy as depicted in the Osiris myth. The underworld was also the residence of various other gods along
with Osiris. The Duat was the region through which the sun god Ra traveled from west to east each night, and it was
where he battled Apophis, who embodied the primordial chaos which the sun had to defeat in order to rise each
morning and bring order back to the earth. It was also the place where people's souls went after death for judgement,
though that was not the full extent of the afterlife.

Pharaoh

Formal religious practice centered on the pharaoh, the rulers of Egypt, believed to possess a divine power by virtue of
their position. As supreme ruler of the people, the pharaoh was considered a god on earth, the intermediary between
the gods and the people. When the pharaoh came to the throne he was instantly associated with Horus - the god who
had defeated the forces of chaos and restored order - and when he died, he was associated with Osiris, the god of the
dead.

Funerary practices
Because it was considered necessary for the survival of the soul, preservation of the body was a central part of
Egyptian funerary practices. Originally the Egyptians buried their dead in the desert, where the arid conditions
mummified the body naturally. In the Early Dynastic Period, however, they began using tombs for greater protection,
and the body was insulated from the desiccating effect of the sand and was subject to natural decay. Thus the
Egyptians developed their elaborate embalming practices, in which the corpse was artificially desiccated and wrapped
to be placed in its coffin.[96] The quality of the process varied according to cost, however, and those who could not
afford it were still buried in desert graves.

Once the mummification process was complete, the mummy was carried from the deceased person's house to the tomb in
a funeral procession that included his or her friends and relatives, along with a variety of priests. Before the burial, these
priests performed several rituals, including the Opening of the mouth ceremony intended to restore the dead person's
senses and give him or her the ability to receive offerings. Then the mummy was buried and the tomb sealed. [98] Afterward,
relatives or hired priests gave food offerings to the deceased in a nearby mortuary chapel at regular intervals. Over time,
families inevitably neglected offerings to long-dead relatives, so most mortuary cults only lasted one or two
generations.[99] However, while the cult lasted, the living sometimes wrote letters asking deceased relatives for help, in the
belief that the dead could affect the world of the living as the gods did.
Ancient Egyptian Mythology

The egyptian mythology is a set of myths and beliefs to the ancient Egyptians. This people flourished in the Nile valley
from 4000 BC and gave birth to a civilization lasting for 4 millennia. The Egyptian mythology is not a unitary body,
because in the different cities of Egypt different gods were worshiped, with functions and features that changed over
the centuries.The main deity is the Sun, called by many names and depicted in many ways. From the third
millennium BC It is most often characterised as the sun god Amon-Ra, who crosses the sky every day carrying the
Sun on board a ship of gold. In some traditions, Amon-Ra also assumes the function of Atum, the principle creator
of the world.
Many Egyptian gods have animal form, such as Bastet, the cat goddess, Bastet is the Egyptian goddess of the
home, domesticity, women's secrets, cats, fertility, and childbirth. She protected the home from evil spirits and
disease, especially diseases associated with women and children. She was doughter of sun god Ra.

or Wadjet, the cobra goddess-protector of Lower Egypt, which is

North Egypt. A great protective goddess and patroness of Lower
Egypt, one of the oldest deities in the Egyptian pantheon,
represented as the rearing cobra which became the king's insignia
(the uraeus).
Some gods have instead only partially featured animals, such as
Anubis, the guardian of the dead who is jackal-headed, Anubis is
depicted as a man with the head of a dog or jackal carrying a staff. He
guided the souls of the dead to the Hall of Truth and was part of the ritual
of the Weighing of the Heart of the Soul in the afterlife. He was
probably the original God of the Dead before that role was given to
Osiris, at which time he was made Osiris' son.

Thoth, god of writing and science, depicted with the head of an ibis.
Thoth is the Egyptian god of writing, magic, wisdom, and the moon. He was one of the most important gods of
ancient Egypt alternately said to be self-created or born of the seed of Horus from the forehead of Set.
The most important myth of Egyptian mythology is the story of the death and resurrection of the god Osiris. Osiris
governed the Egyptians and thought them the laws and the art of agriculture.
Osiris is the Egyptian Lord of the Underworld and Judge of the Dead,
brother-husband to Isis, and one of the most important gods of ancient
Egypt. The name `Osiris' is the Latinized form of the Egyptian Usir
which is interpreted as 'powerful' or 'mighty'.

But his brother Seth, god of the desert, is envious of him and organizes a plot to dethrone him. He kills him and
reduces his body into pieces, spreading it across the country.

Set, also known as Seth and Suetekh, was the Egyptian god of war, chaos and storms,
brother of Osiris, Isis, and Horus the Elder, uncle to Horus the Younger, and brother-
husband to Nephthys.
 The goddess Isis, wife of Osiris, manages to reassemble the body of her husband, who comes back to life: the two
gods come together and generate Horus, the sky god falcon-headed. Later, Osiris finally dies: he passes to the
reign of the dead and becomes its ruler.
Isis is an ancient Egyptian goddess, associated with the earlier
goddess Hathor, who became the most popular and enduring
of all the Egyptian deities. Her name comes from the Egyptian
Eset, ("the seat") which referred to her stability and also the
throne of Egypt as she was considered the mother of every
pharaoh through the king's association with Horus, Isis' son.
The young Horus grows and challenge the usurper Seth to avenge his father's death: the battle is fierce, but in the
end the falcon-god takes over and becomes the king of Egypt.
Horus is the name of a sky god in ancient Egyptian mythology which designates
primarily two deities: Horus the Elder (or Horus the Great), the last born of the first
five original gods, and Horus the Younger, the son of Osiris and Isis. According to
the historian Jimmy Dunn, "Horus is the most important of the avian deities" who
takes on so many forms and is depicted so differently in various inscriptions that "it is
nearly impossible to distinguish the 'true' Horus.

The Creation Of The World

To the Egyptians, the journey began with the creation of the world and the universe
out of darkness and swirling chaos. Once there was nothing but endless dark water
without form or purpose. Existing within this void was Heka (god of magic) who
awaited the moment of creation. Out of this watery silence (`Nu’) rose the primordial
hill, known as the Ben-Ben, upon which stood the great god Atum (or, in some versions of the myth, Ptah). Atum
looked upon the nothingness and recognized his aloneness and so, through the agency of magic, he mated with his
own shadow to give birth to two children, Shu (god of air, whom Atum spat out) and Tefnut (goddess of moisture,
whom Atum vomited out). Shu gave to the early world the principles of life while Tefnut contributed the principles of
order.
Leaving their father on the Ben-Ben, they set out to establish the world. In time, Atum became concerned because
his children were gone so long and so removed his eye and sent it in search of them. While his eye was gone, Atum
sat alone on the hill in the midst of chaos and contemplated eternity. Shu and Tefnut returned with the eye of Atum
(later associated with the Udjat eye, the Eye of Ra, or the All-Seeing Eye) and their father, grateful for their safe
return, shed tears of joy. These tears, dropping onto the dark, fertile earth of the Ben-Ben, gave birth to men
and women.
Religios belief of Egyptian

Egypt is a predominately Sunni Muslim country, with the largest religious minorities there being Coptic Orthodox
Christianity and Shi'a Muslims.
Islam as the official state religion and Islamic law is the basis for legislative decisions in Egypt. One of the ways in
which the government does not promote religious freedom is by not recognizing Muslim individuals who have
converted to a different belief system. Additionally, the government must officially recognize a religion for it to be
practiced freely. This official recognition is obtained by submitting a request to the Department of Religious Affairs.
The department then determines if the proposed religions would cause a threat to national peace; the last time a
religion was granted recognition was in 1990. If individuals are found practicing an unrecognized religion, they may
be arrested, prosecuted, and punished.