The Egyptians and Nubians ("Kushites") had unusual ideas about their gods and goddesses; we might find them very strange. They believed that since the gods were magic beings, they could change into many different forms. Each god or goddess could appear to be human, or part human, or he or she could even take the shape of an animal or several different animals. All of these different forms of a god might be called by the same name, which reveals to us that they were all forms of the same god.

Even stranger than this was the power of some of the great gods and goddesses to change themselves into other gods. This means that we sometimes see a familiar god being called by another god's name, or even by several other gods' names. To us this hardly makes sense! When we study this carefully, however, we discover something amazing: that the Egyptians and Kushites believed that their gods and goddesses were all parts of one great mysterious god or divine being, whose true nature people could not understand. The name of this god was Amun, which meant "Hidden."

The Egyptians and Kushites thought this one great god dwelt in a number of places, and at each one of these places he had a slightly different form that had to be worshipped as a separate god. In Egypt, his most important dwelling place was Thebes; in Kush it was Napata, where he was believed to live inside a small mountain, now called Jebel Barkal. In ancient times it was called "the Pure Mountain." Here Egyptians and Kushites believed all the gods and goddesses lived and merged together in the being of Amun.

There were probably at least fifteen temples built in front of Jebel Barkal. Only about seven have been excavated. The Nubians thought that the gods were all born at Jebel Barkal and that the creation of the earth took place there. The town of Napata, which was built in front of the mountain, naturally became the chief religious center of Kush. All the towns in Kush had their own special temples, and it was necessary for the rulers to travel to each one, each year, and make offerings to each of the gods.

These gods and goddesses are of the most important worshipped in Nubia. The Nubians adopted many of them from the Egyptians, but a few of them were only worshipped in Nubia. When you see BCE in a description it stands for "Before Common Era" and means the same as BC. CE stands for "Common Era" and means the same as AD.

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