Amun was "King of the Gods," a major god of Thebes in Upper Egypt. The "Lord to the Limit" who created all things, Amun was the master of the "hidden wind" who eventually became syncretised with the royal cult of Ra to emerge as Amun-Ra in the Middle Kingdom.

Successions of Theban rulers propelled Amun's fame to national and eventually to international status -- even Alexander the Great sought Amun's blessing before declaring himself Egypt's ruler.

It is possible that the conception of Amun influenced conceptions of the Judaic/Hebraic God YHVH as well as those of Greek Zeus and Roman Jupiter. The Romans declared Jupiter and Amun to be the same divinity.

For the ancient Egyptians, however, Amun was something of a 'political' god, and did not offer much for a debate in metaphysics. But this did not stop the rich from consecrating vast amounts of treasure to the priesthood of Amun in order to guarantee their arrival in the afterlife. At many points in Egyptian history, the priests of Amun-Ra held power rivalling even the pharaohs. During the New Kingdom perhaps a third of the land was in the hands of the Amun priesthood, with a proportionally large number of workers and slaves.

Amun-Ra grew so important spiritually and politically by the time of the New Kingdom that Egypt became something of a theocracy. At the apex of his worship, Egyptian religion approached monotheism. The other gods became mere symbols of his power, or manifestations of Amun-Ra. In essence, he became the one and only supreme deity.

Amun's famous Temple of Karnak is the largest religious structure ever built by man. The Middle and New Kingdoms, Later Dynasties and Greco-Roman Periods, dynasty after dynasty, pharaoh after pharaoh - all continued to add to and renovate this massive complex.

Amun is generally depicted as a man wearing a tall golden plumed crown and a red and white pleated skirt; infrequently He is also shown as a ram with curled-down horns (not to be confused with the ram representing Khnum), or a ram-headed man.