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Amun's name in hieroglyphs: the god inside Tutankhamun and Amenhotep
19 October 2026
Amun's name in hieroglyphs is three signs: a flowering reed, a game board and a ripple of water. Together they spell imn, a name usually translated "the hidden one". A small seated god can follow as a silent mark of the divine.
The same three signs sit inside the names of many pharaohs: Amenemhat, Amenhotep, Tutankhamun, Siamun and the Meryamun of Ramesses II.
Each of the three signs gives a sound
The flowering reed M17 is the sound i, a weak consonant that modern readers voice as "a" or "i". The game board Y5 writes two consonants at once, mn. The ripple of water N35 is n, written again after the board to confirm how the word ends. Scribes wrote no vowels.
The board is drawn from the side, with its gaming pieces standing in a row on top. Its sound comes from the verb mn, "to remain" or "to endure", which the same sign writes elsewhere.
The hidden god rose with the kings of Thebes
Amun was a local god of Thebes and little known before the Middle Kingdom. Theban rulers then carried him to the top of Egyptian religion. Amenemhat I, who founded the 12th Dynasty around 1985 BC, put him in his birth name: imn-m-ḥꜣt, Amenemhat, "Amun is at the front". His cartouche reads in plain order. Amun's three signs come first, then the owl G17 for m, "at", then the forepart of a lion F4 with the loaf X1 for ḥꜣt, "front".
Amun was later joined to the sun god as Amun-Ra, imn-rꜥ, written with his three signs and then the sun disc N5. Under that name he was called king of the gods, and Karnak became the most important of his temples at Thebes.
Royal names carry Amun at the head of the cartouche
Amenhotep, imn-ḥtp, "Amun is content", is read in the order it is written. Four kings of the 18th Dynasty bore it. In Amenhotep I's birth name the god's three signs come first, then the offering mat R4 for ḥtp, then the loaf X1 and the stool Q3, which repeat its t and p. Amenhotep III added ḥqꜣ-wꜣst, "ruler of Thebes", with the crook S38 and the sceptre of Thebes R19.
In other names Amun is spoken later yet still written first, out of respect. Egyptologists call this honorific transposition. Siamun of the 21st Dynasty set Amun's signs ahead of the pintail duck G39, zꜣ, "son", and his name is read zꜣ-imn, "son of Amun". Ramesses II's birth name holds mry-imn, "beloved of Amun", with the canal N36 for mr, and Amun and Ra both stand at the start of the ring.
Akhenaten had the name chiselled away
Amenhotep IV, son of Amenhotep III, raised the sun disc, the Aten, above every other god. In the fifth year of his reign he gave up a name that held Amun and became Akhenaten, "Effective for the Aten". His workmen went on to cut Amun's name and figure out of monuments across Egypt.
The chisels reached his own father's names, because Amenhotep begins with Amun. A seated granite statue of Amenhotep III from Thebes, now in the British Museum, had Amun's name defaced on its back pillar. The damage was repaired after Akhenaten's death, when the old gods returned.
Tutankhaten traded the Aten for Amun
The boy king who followed was born Tutankhaten, "living image of the Aten". Around his third year as king he became Tutankhamun, "living image of Amun", and his queen Ankhesenpaaten became Ankhesenamun. In the cartouche Amun's reed, board and water took the front place, ahead of the loaves and quail chick of twt, "image", and the ankh S34 of ꜥnḫ, "living".
His Restoration Stela, found at Karnak in 1905, shows him offering to Amun-Ra and the goddess Mut. Its text records how he renewed the temples after the years of Akhenaten. Horemheb later took the stela over and carved his own name into it, though some of Tutankhamun's cartouches survive.
Karnak and Luxor Temple were Amun's own houses
Karnak, which the Egyptians called Ipet-isut, "the most select of places", was Amun's chief temple. His game board turns up on obelisks, column shafts and chapel walls. Look also for the hoe U7, mr, in "beloved of Amun" after royal names.
Luxor Temple lies about 3 km to the south. Each year at the Opet festival Amun's statue travelled there from Karnak. Amenhotep III built most of it, and the cartouches in his sun court show Amun's three signs at the head of Amenhotep.
Three plain shapes make the god's name
Draw a tall reed leaf first. Then draw a long, low rectangle with a row of small pegs on its top edge for the game board, and a zigzag line for the water. Scribes arranged the three to fill the space they had, so the reed may stand beside the board or above it.
Questions
Is Amun the same god as Amon and Ammon?
Yes. Amun, Amon and Amen are modern ways of voicing imn. Greek writers called him Ammon and identified him with Zeus, as Zeus Ammon.
How was Amun's name pronounced?
Linguists reconstruct an early form close to "ya-MAH-nuw" and a later one close to "a-MOHN". Coptic, the last stage of Egyptian, wrote vowels and spelled the name Amoun.
What does Amun look like in Egyptian art?
He is a man wearing a crown with two tall plumes. As Amun-Ra he hands the king life or a sword on temple walls at Karnak and Luxor.
Glossary
- ankh
- The sign of life, ꜥnḫ, a cross with a loop on top. Gods hold it out to kings in temple scenes.
- birth name
- The name a king was given at birth, written in the second cartouche after the title "son of Ra". Egyptologists also call it the nomen.
- cartouche
- An oval ring drawn around a royal name, a loop of rope tied at one end. Kings wrote their two main names in cartouches.
- dynasty
- A line of kings counted together, usually one family. Egyptologists number Egypt's kings in about 30 dynasties, following the priest Manetho.
- hieroglyphs
- The picture signs of ancient Egyptian writing, used from about 3200 BC to AD 394. A sign can stand for sounds, for a whole word, or for the kind of thing a word means.
- honorific transposition
- Writing the name of a god or king first, out of respect, even where it is read later in the phrase.
- Middle Kingdom
- The age when Egypt was united again, about 2055 to 1650 BC. Its texts became the classic form of the language that later scribes copied.
- obelisk
- A tall, four-sided stone pillar with a pointed top, usually set up in pairs before a temple and carved with the king's names.
- pharaoh
- The king of Egypt. The word comes from per-aa, "great house", a name for the palace that came to mean the king himself in the New Kingdom.
- scribe
- A person trained to read and write, who kept accounts, wrote letters and copied texts. Few Egyptians could write, and scribes were well respected.
- stela
- An upright stone slab carved with words and pictures, set up in tombs and temples or to mark a border.
- temple
- The house of a god, where priests served the god's statue. Temples for dead kings kept up their offerings after death.
People in this article
Where to see it
- Karnak Temple site
- Luxor Temple site
- British Museum, London museum
Sources
- Amun-Re, The Karnak Great Hypostyle Hall Project, University of Memphis
- Restoration Stela of Tutankhamen, Digital Karnak
- Different ways to write the same words, Learn Hieroglyphs, Bibliotheca Alexandrina
- King Amenhotep III, World History Encyclopedia
- Statue of Amenhotep III, British Museum, Ancient Egypt and Archaeology Web Site
- Amun, Wikipedia (with its cited references)
More to read
- Eye of Horus vs Eye of Ra: the difference, and how to tell them apart Eye of Horus vs Eye of Ra: the moon eye that heals and the sun eye that attacks as a goddess. The difference, left and right, and clues on real objects.
- The sun disc: Ra in names and words Ra in hieroglyphs is the sun disc, a circle with a dot, read rꜥ. How it writes the god, the word day, son of Ra and the throne names of Egypt's kings.
- Osiris's name in hieroglyphs: the throne and the eye How to write Osiris in hieroglyphics: the throne and eye that spell wsjr, his titles Wennefer and lord of Abydos, and where to read his name in Egypt.