# Anubis Source: https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/anubis Language: en # Anubis The black jackal of the cemetery, who does the embalming and guards the burial. **Also written**: Inpu · Anpu · Imy-ut · إنبو · أنبو Useful clues to take into the temple. ## How to recognise them Anubis commonly appears as a black canid or a man with a canid head, associated with embalming and protection of the dead. Black has symbolic significance here; use captions and context to distinguish him from other canid deities. ## Who they were Anubis is the god of embalming and of the cemetery itself, and he held that place long before Osiris did. The animal is a dog or jackal of the kind that really did live on the desert edge above the tombs, and the Egyptians turned the danger into a guardian. In the mythology he is the one who wraps Osiris and so invents mummification; in practice he is the god the embalmers worked as, and a priest wearing a jackal mask stood in for him at the funeral. He also operates the scales when the heart is weighed. ## Where you meet them He has his own chapel at the north end of the middle terrace at Deir el-Bahari, with its columns and its painted ceiling. He is among the first figures on the walls of most Theban tombs, at the point where the dead person is received, and he attends the mummy in the burial chambers of the Valley of the Queens and the workmen’s tombs. God ## Who they are shown with [ God ### Osiris Osiris often appears wrapped as a mummy, holding a crook and flail. His atef crown has a tall central element flanked by feathers. The djed is a pillar-shaped symbol with stacked crossbars, associated with stability. Use these clues together with the inscription. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/osiris)[ God ### Isis The reliable sign is a small stepped throne worn on her head — a seat drawn in profile, which is literally how her name is written. From the New Kingdom on she also wears cow’s horns with a sun disc between them, and that is exactly Hathor’s crown, so the two become genuinely hard to separate: if there is a throne, it is Isis; if there is only horns-and-disc, read the caption or the context, and remember that in a tomb the two goddesses flanking a coffin are usually Isis and her sister Nephthys. The other giveaway is the pose. In funerary painting Isis very often kneels at one end of a shrine, a coffin or a scene with her arms stretched out and long feathered wings hanging from them, mirrored by Nephthys at the other end. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/isis)[ God ### Horus A falcon or falcon-headed figure may represent Horus, but several deities use falcon imagery. Crown, accompanying text and the action in the scene provide the more reliable identification. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/horus) Continue reading ## Where to look 1–1 / 4 [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)[Necropolis · West bank ### Valley of the Kings The royal burial landscape of the New Kingdom: rock-cut tombs tucked into a desert valley, separate from the kings’ major commemorative temples. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/valley-of-the-kings)[Necropolis · West bank ### Valley of the Queens A royal cemetery whose tombs vary greatly in decoration and access. Check which are open before deciding how it fits your day. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/valley-of-the-queens)[Necropolis · West bank ### Tombs of the Nobles Private tombs across the Theban hills, where images of work, family and offerings express the status and afterlife hopes of officials and their households. ](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/tombs-of-the-nobles) 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 [The temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari — excavation, conservation and reconstruction reports](https://templeofhatshepsut.pcma.uw.edu.pl/badania/) Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw 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)