One of a number of gods connected to the sun, Re was frequently portrayed as having a human body and a hawk’s head. During his nightly journey through the underworld, where he would have to vanquish the serpent god Apopis in order to rise again, it was thought that he traveled across the sky in a boat each day.
The epicenter of Re’s cult was in Heliopolis, which is now Cairo City. Re was eventually combined with other sun gods, particularly Amon.
Re, the sun and kingship
Re (also written Ra) was the sun god and, for much of Egyptian history, the most important god of all. From the 4th Dynasty, around 2600 BC, kings took the title “Son of Re”, and the royal pyramids, sun temples and obelisks of the Old Kingdom were all tied to his cult. Each morning he was reborn in the east, sailed across the sky in his day boat and entered the underworld at sunset in his night boat, where he had to defeat the serpent Apophis before rising again.
Many forms of Re
Re merged with other gods: with Horus as Re-Horakhty (“Re, Horus of the Two Horizons”), with Atum as the evening sun, and with Amun of Thebes as Amun-Re, king of the gods in the New Kingdom. The scarab beetle Khepri was his morning form, pushing the sun disc over the horizon like a dung ball.
Where to see Re today
His great cult centre was Heliopolis (ancient Iunu), now a Cairo suburb, where the obelisk of Senusret I still stands at Al-Masalla, one of the oldest obelisks in Egypt. At Abu Simbel, Re-Horakhty stands in a niche above the entrance of the Great Temple, and on about 22 February and 22 October the rising sun reaches the sanctuary and lights his statue alongside Ramesses II and Amun-Re. At Karnak, the vast temple of Amun-Re shows how far the sun cult grew. Khufu’s solar boat, built to carry the king with the sun, is now displayed at the Grand Egyptian Museum.
Quick facts
- Domain: the sun, creation, kingship
- Symbols: sun disc with cobra, falcon head, scarab, obelisk
- Cult centre: Heliopolis (Iunu)
- Related deities: Atum, Horus, Amun, Hathor and Sekhmet (his “Eyes”)
More gods in our ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses guide.