‘The most powerful priesthood at that time was attached to the worship of Amun with his great temple complex at Karnak. No doubt because the female pharaoh Hatshepsut, a century before, had brought her favourite god Amun to prominence, and given his priesthood unprecedented riches and power, they were not at all pleased to find their temple and themselves starved of power and funds, and later even physically attacked and destroyed. It was a very important tenet of belief that the gods performing their traditional roles kept the universe, not only in order and balance, but in existence. It was thus dangerous to alter anything, for in doing so one might bring about the end of all things. Statues of gods in Egypt were sacred objects which, it was believed, the gods themselves might inhabit fr
