The aging sun god Ra was described as having “ his bones turned into silver, his flesh into gold, and his hair into real lapis-lazuli”. It could be melted and fashioned without ever tarnishing, so it seemed eternal. In the desert one could find in rocks a metal of the same color as the sunshine. And the balance of this fine clockwork of life was the sun. So they perceived a divine harmony in the world around them. Each year the Nile fertilized the dry land. At night, instead of seeing obscurity and confusion, they saw order, as the stars moved in unison.Įach day the sun brought life to the world. But then from the water emerged an island, the sun, the gods, and on the earth mound lush vegetation grew. They envisioned that it started as an ocean of darkness and chaos. Why this fascination with gold? At the dawn of the ancient Egyptian civilization, people tried to make sense of the world around them. Pharaoh Thutmose III is recorded to have given 13,8 tons of gold to Amun, Osorkon I nearly 24 tons of gold to the sun god Ra. Gold, Flesh of Egyptian Gods Egyptian Gold Statuette of Amun, as statues of gods in Ancient Egypt were often made of gold, or were gilded.
