# Ra

Source: https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/ra
Language: en

# Ra

The sun — and the night journey that every royal tomb in the valley is a map of.

**Also written**: Re · Re-Horakhty · Ra-Horakhty · Amun-Re · رع حور آختي · را

Useful clues to take into the temple.

## How to recognise them

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.

## Who they were

Ra, also written Re, is the sun god. His daily passage and renewal are central to many funerary compositions, but those texts organise the journey in different ways: not every underworld book is divided into twelve hours.

## Where you meet them

In royal tombs, look for solar imagery and texts connecting the king’s renewal with the sun. The Litany of Re appears in many Ramesside tombs, but the selection and arrangement of texts differ between tombs.

God

## Who they are shown with

[

God

### Amun

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.

](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/amun)[

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)[

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

### Sekhmet

A lioness-headed woman with a sun disc is a useful starting clue for Sekhmet, not an exclusive identifier. Other lioness goddesses share features; read the caption where it survives.

](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/sekhmet)

Continue reading

## Where to look

1–1 / 3

[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)[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)[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)

Sources & further reading 3

Tier 2 The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, Richard H. Wilkinson 

Thames & Hudson

Tier 2 The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife, Erik Hornung 

Cornell University Press

Tier 2 The Complete Valley of the Kings, Nicholas Reeves and Richard H. Wilkinson 

Thames & Hudson

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)