The Ancient Egypt Site: Explore more than 3,000 years of Ancient Egyptian history, from the end of prehistory at around 3.000 BC to the closing of the last Egyptian temple in 535/537 AD.
A timeline helps you navigate through history and discover the formidable Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt.

Egyptian Creation: The best-known and perhaps most important of the early Egyptian myths is the Heliopolitan Cosmogony. The priests of the cult of the sun-god Ra in ancient Iunu developed this cosmogony. This myth describes the genealogy of the Ennead, the group of nine gods according to a family tree, that is, Atum self-engendered Shu and Tefnut, who gave birth to Geb and Nut, who gave birth to Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys.

The Ennead (Pesdjet) of Heliopolis: Part II: The Passion of Osiris: When Nut gave birth to Osiris, Seth, Isis, and Nephtys it linked the elder cosmic deities to the younger god Osiris whose worship was in the rising (he is not not known before Dynasty V), making him the great grandson of the creator god and putting emphasis on the divinity of the king and the political world, and thereby the world of myth became complete and logical.

The Creation Myth: Like other creation myths, Egypt's is complex and offers several versions of how the world unfolded. The ancient Egyptians believed that the basic principles of life, nature and society were determined by the gods at the creation of the world. It all began with the first stirring of the High God in the primeval waters.

The Abydos Triad and Seth: The only complete account of the Osiris myth occurs in Plutarch's Of Isis and Osiris, Egyptian fragments support much of his version. The son of the earth-god Geb and the sky-goddess Nut, Osiris is credited with teaching the skills of agriculture to the Egyptians.

Egyptian Creation Myths: Compares Ancient Creation Myths of the Upper and Lower Kingdom. As is the case with most ancient mythologies, the Egyptians created myths to try to explain their place in the cosmos. Their understanding of the cosmic order was from direct observation of nature. Therefore their creation myths concern themselves with gods of nature; the earth, the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars, and of course, the Nile river. Since the Nile river, with its annual floods played a critical role in this cosmic order. It should come as no surprise to find water the fundamental element in the Egyptians ideas of creation. For the Egyptians to watch the inundation of their land would have been like watching a earthly model of their ideas of a watery creation. In the beginning there was only water, a chaos of churning, bubbling water, this the Egyptians called Nu or Nun. It was out of Nu that everything began.