# Amun Source: https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/amun Language: en # Amun The hidden god of Thebes, who became king of the gods and the state god of an empire. **Also written**: Amun-Re · Amon · Ammon · Imen · آمون رع · أمون Useful clues to take into the temple. ## How to recognise them Amun often wears a crown with two tall feathers and may appear as a man or in ram-related forms. These are useful clues, but other gods can share attributes: inscriptions and the surrounding scene help confirm an identification. ## Who they were Amun’s name is associated with hiddenness. He became central to Theban religion and was combined with the solar god Re as Amun-Re. The wealth and influence of his temples, especially Karnak, grew with royal patronage; combination with another deity did not simply erase that deity’s identity. ## Where you meet them Karnak was a major centre of Amun’s cult (the worship and rituals devoted to a deity or royal figure). Luxor Temple also housed a form of Amun, Amenemopet, and received the Karnak procession during Opet. Follow that connection to understand the temples together. God ## Who they are shown with [ God ### Mut Mut often appears as a woman with a vulture headdress and the double crown. She can also take a lioness form. These attributes guide recognition, but inscriptions and the scene’s context are needed when deities share features. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/mut)[ God ### Khonsu Khonsu commonly has a youthful sidelock, a wrapped body and a lunar disc with a crescent. He may also be falcon-headed. The lunar crown is a useful clue; read the accompanying name when it survives. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/khonsu)[ God ### Ra By day: a man with a falcon’s head carrying a plain sun disc on top, almost always with a cobra coiled at the front of it. Falcon head plus disc is Re or Re-Horakhty; falcon head with a crown but no disc is far more likely to be Horus, and that is the distinction worth holding on to. At night, in the tombs, he changes: inside the boat, in a shrine, stands a man with a ram’s head, often labelled as the flesh or body of Re — a ram-headed figure in a boat on a tomb wall is the night sun, not Amun. In the morning he is a scarab beetle pushing the disc up in front of it, and on many burial-chamber ceilings the scarab and the ram-headed figure appear at the two ends of the same journey. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/ra)[ God ### Ptah Ptah commonly appears wrapped in a close-fitting garment, with a skullcap and a staff combining familiar divine symbols. Compare the headgear and staff together, and use the inscription to confirm the name. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/ptah) Continue reading ## Where to look 1–1 / 8 [Temple complex · East bank ### Karnak Temple Complex Two thousand years of building, rebuilding and royal ambition, gathered around the temples of Amun. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/karnak)[Temple · East bank ### Luxor Temple A temple of Amun in the heart of today’s city, shaped by royal ritual and the annual Opet festival. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/luxor-temple)[Temple · West bank ### Temple of Hatshepsut Terraces set straight into the cliff at Deir el-Bahari — and a reign that was later chiselled off its own walls. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/temple-of-hatshepsut)[Temple · West bank ### Medinet Habu Colour survives here wherever the roof did — on a temple built by a king fighting to hold Egypt together. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/medinet-habu)[Temple · West bank ### The Ramesseum Ramesses II’s mortuary temple, largely collapsed — including the colossus that put “Ozymandias” into English. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/ramesseum)[Village · West bank ### Deir el-Medina The village of the men who cut the royal tombs. It is the site that makes all the others feel human. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/deir-el-medina)[Monument · West bank ### Colossi of Memnon Two seated figures of Amenhotep III mark the entrance area of a once vast royal temple. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/colossi-of-memnon)[Museum · East bank ### Luxor Museum A museum that brings objects from ancient Thebes into focus, from royal sculpture to reconstructed temple reliefs. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/luxor-museum) Sources & further reading 3 Tier 2 The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, Richard H. Wilkinson Thames & Hudson Tier 2 Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses and Traditions of Ancient Egypt, Geraldine Pinch Oxford University Press Tier 1 [Survey, excavation and restoration in the temples of Karnak](https://www.cfeetk.cnrs.fr/accueil/programmes-scientifiques/projet-karnak/) Centre franco-égyptien d’étude des temples de Karnak (CFEETK) Official page indexed · checked 2026-09-19 Source review is incomplete. Consultation dates are shown only for checked references. Published works and institutional references for further reading. [Sources and review status](mailto:corrections@egyptmore.com?subject=Luxor101%20correction) [Gods](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods)