The ancient Egyptians were a devout people, and their gods, larger than life but endowed with every human frailty, were present in every aspect of their lives. Their preoccupation with the divine is evident in the numerous temples and tombs that still stand in the valley of the Nile. Their mythology has been pieced together by  Egyptologists through inscriptions found on the walls of pyramids, on coffin lids, on papyrus scrolls, and from the statues and other works of art that have been found dating from different periods of Egyptian civilisation.

Despite such a wealth of archaeological evidence, there are large gaps in our knowledge and understanding of the religion and mythology of ancient Egypt. Moreover, though the ancient Egyptians followed the same fundamental concepts, there was no single, unified religious doctrine. Mythological concepts  varied from place to place and from period to period. As existing concepts evolved and new doctrines came in, sometimes from neighbouring civilisations, the Egyptians, instead of discarding the old, preferred to blend the old and the new. As a result, the same myth appears in different forms at different times and in different places. This did not bother the ancient Egyptians, for to them, these varying versions were just so many different ways to express the same fundamental ideas.

Here are some myths and legends from this ancient and fascinating civilisation.