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Montu
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Montu
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Al-Jizah. Giza Necropolis, Giza Plateau, Cairo, Egypt. Side view of Sphinx with the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) rising in the background. The sides of all three of the Giza pyramids are astronomically oriented to be north-south, east-west (see notes)
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Also spelled:
Mont, Monthu, or Mentu
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Montu
Montu Montu, the Egyptian god of war, often represented as a man with a falcon's head and wearing a crown of two plumes with a double uraeus (rearing cobra) on his forehead.

Montu

Egyptian god
Also known as: Mentu, Mont, Monthu
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History

Montu, in ancient Egyptian religion, god of the 4th Upper Egyptian nome (province), whose original capital of Hermonthis (present-day Armant) was replaced by Thebes during the 11th dynasty (c. 2080–c. 1940 bce). Montu was a god of war. In addition to falcons, a bull was his sacred animal; from the 30th dynasty (380–343 bce), this bull, the Buchis bull, received an elaborate cult. Montu was represented as a man with a falcon’s head, wearing a crown of two plumes with a double uraeus (rearing cobra) on his forehead. He had important temple complexes at Karnak in Thebes and at Hermonthis, Al-Ṭūd, and Al-Mādamūd in the Theban area, all of which expanded greatly in the period of Roman rule.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Alicja Zelazko.