The Egyptian religion, like many of the ancient civilisations was based on the worship of numerous gods. Throughout egypt there were many temples and this was believed to be the residing places of the gods
The Egyptians believed that the earth was a disc with the flat plains of Egypt as the centre, and the mountainous regions as surrounding the rim and supporting the disc. Below the disk were the deep waters of the underworld, and naturally, above the disc was the plain of the sky, or heaven.
The belief for the creation of the world can be attributed to the god Khnum while others believed that it was the divine thought of the Ptah that shaped the universe. However, the most common belief is that of Ra or Amon Ra creating the universe in which he appeared out of the primeval chaos to create the air god Shu and his wife Tefnut, who in turn created the sky goddess Nut and the earth God Geb, thus in turn giving birth to Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys.
The purposes of the temples were to be a cosmic centre for the gods and in which men could communicate with their chosen deity.
The earliest belief form for the egyptians were based on animal worship, this was seen through such gods as Anubis, with the head of a jackal or Osiris with the head of a falcon. Sometimes throughout egypt a whole species of animal would be claimed as sacred. For instance, Cats, with the goddess Bast were the sacred animal in Egypt.
As a god had the ability to represent various natural phenomena, thus it could be reversed so that a natural phenomena could have various explanations.
The afterlife was a very important in the religious sector of life. The Egyptians not only wanted to extend their life beyond that of the grave but to become part of the perennial life of nature. The two most important concepts for the afterlife are the Ka and the Ba.
The Ka was believed to be a form of a double-self, however not an element of the personality, but rather, a detached part of the self that can guide the fortunes of the person in life. However it was more clearly associated with the fortunes of the person in the hereafter.
Whereas the Ba is the manifestation of the individual after death and is usually represented in the form of a bird