2. Amoun/Amun/Amun Ra One of the most important gods in the Egyptian pantheon. He is first mentioned in the 5th Dynasty pyramid texts. His temple at Karnak is the best surviving religious complex of the New Kingdom. In the jubilee chapel of Senusret I (1965-1920 BC) in Karnak, Amoun is described as "the king of the gods" and by the time of the Ptolemies, he was regarded as the Egyptian equivalent of Zeus

3. Anubis Canine god of the dead, closely associated with embalming and mummification. Usually represented in the form of a seated black dog or man with a dog's head. It is not clear whether the dog in question - often identified by the Egyptian word "sab" was a jackal. According to myth, the jackal-god was said to have wrapped the body of the deceased Osiris, thus establishing his particular association with the mummification process. The priest in charge of the funeral and embalming rights was known as the "hery seshta" (overseer of the mysteries), who took the part of the jackal god Anubis

4. Hathor Important goddess worshiped in three forms: as a woman with the ears of a cow, as a cow, and as a woman wearing a head-dress with wig, horns and sun disc. Her associations and cult centres were among the most numerous and diverse of any of the Egyptian deities. The literal meaning of her name was "House of Horus" and since the pharaoh identified with Horus, Hathor was correspondingly regarded as the divine mother of each reigning king, and one of the royal titles was "Son of Hathor".

5. Horus Falcon headed god, usually depicted as a hawk or as a man with the head of a hawk. Horus was the god of the sky and the embodiment of divine kingship, protector of the reigning pharaoh. According to one of the most common myths, Horus was the child of the goddess Isis and the god Osiris. It was Horus who performed the rite of the "opening of the mouth" on his dead father, thus legitimising his succession to the throne as earthly ruler. In a similar vein, priests (or eldest sons) wearing distinctive panther skins would ritually purify the path of the deceased's coffin.

6. Isis. She was the sister-wife to Osiris and the mother of Horus. Best known mythologically as the devoted wife of Osiris, whose body she sought, after his murder by his brother Seth. She is said to have made the first mummy from the dismembered limbs of Osiris, using her wings to breathe life into him and magically conceiving her son, Horus in the process. Her most famous temple is Philae near Aswan, but she was also widely worshipped universally, with cult centres at Dendera and Byblos in Syria-Palestine.

7. Khepri The creator sun-god at dawn is represented by a scarab (dung) beetle pushing the sun disc upwards from the underworld. The Ancient Egyptians would have noticed the dung beetles busily rolling their balls of dirt across the ground. The beetles would also emerge from inside the balls, apparently spontaneously, so it was quite logical for the Egyptians to use the beetles to symbolise Khepri "he who is coming into being", self created of his own accord without undergoing the natural cycle of reproduction.

8. Khnum The ram headed god, whose strong association with the Nile inundation and the fertile soil contributed to his role as a potter-god. The creative symbolism of molding pottery, the potency of the ram, and the fact that the Ancient Egyptian word for ram was "ba" meant that Khnum was also one of the principle creator gods. Sometimes Khnum was shown modeling the "ka" on his potter's wheel whilst forming the bodies of humanity. Khnum's principal cult centre was on the island of Elephantine at Aswan, where he was possibly worshipped from the Early Dynastic Period.

9. Osiris One of the most important deities of Ancient Egypt, whose principle association is with death, resurrection and fertility. He is usually depicted as a mummy whose hands project through his wrappings to hold the royal insignia of the crook and flail. Osiris was once an earthly ruler who governed well, and so aroused the jealousy of his evil brother Seth. Seth secretly discovered the measurements of his brother's body, had a magnificent casket made to fit Osiris, and organized a banquet to which he invited 72 accomplices as well as Osiris.

10. Osiris Continued… During the feast he declared that whoever fitted the casket exactly should have it as a gift. Osiris stepped into the coffin and the lid was sealed with molten lead. Cast into the Nile it drifted to Byblos and caught in a cedar tree. Seth stumbled on the casket and angrily dismembered the body of his brother. Isis then searched for the pieces of her husband, and reassembled the body into a mummy, magically conceived Horus, who was said to have avenged his father's death in a series of contests with his uncle. According to the myths, these struggles lasted for eighty years until Osiris was finally declared ruler of the underworld and Horus confirmed as ruler of the living, leaving Seth to rule the deserts as the god of chaos and evil.

11. Seth. The God of chaos and confusion, generally depicted with a human body and the head of a mysterious unknown animal, probably a mythical beast. Seth was the son of the sky- goddess Nut and the brother of Osiris, Isis and Nephthys (who was also his wife). According to the legend, Seth murdered his brother Osiris and was involved in a long and violent contest with his nephew Horus who sought to avenge the death of his father. Laying outside the "ordered universe" governed by Horus (ruler of the living) and Osiris (ruler of the underworld), Seth served as the necessary complement to divine order.

12. Thoth. God of writing and knowledge, depicted in the form of two animals: the baboon and the sacred ibis. By the end of the Old Kingdom he was most frequently portrayed as an ibis-headed man, usually holding a scribal palette and a pen or a notched palm leaf. He was also often shown recording the results of the "weighing of the heart" of the deceased, and sometimes in addition, he is shown as a baboon