Deity · Egyptian · c. 2600 BCE
Nun
Also called Nu
The featureless water that was there before anything, still lying outside the created world and underneath it.
Well sourced
Not a god who acts but a condition that persists. The waters were there before anything, the first mound rose out of them, and they did not go away — they are under the world, around it and above the sky, and the sun re-enters them every night. Every Egyptian creation account, at Heliopolis, Memphis and Thebes alike, starts here whatever it says next, which makes Nun the one point three rival theologies agree on. He also supplies the ending: the texts that describe the world's dissolution have it return to this, which is a cosmology with no final judgment in it at all.
Identity
Where does the name come from?
Where it was actually worshipped
None, unless the sacred lake beside every major temple counts — which is arguably the point of digging one.
A figure with temples and a figure that only ever existed on a page are different kinds of thing, and the difference is easy to lose once both are entries in a list.
At a glance
Vitals
Vitals
Also known as
- First attested
- The Pyramid Texts · c. 2350–2100 BCE
- Rank
- The Primeval Waters
- Pantheon
- Egyptian
- Order
- Egyptian pantheon
- Base of operations
- None, unless the sacred lake beside every major temple counts — which is arguably the point of digging one.
- Era
- c. 2600 BCE
- Traditions
- Egyptian
- Placed in
- The Heliopolitan Ennead
Traits
- Domain
- The formless water that preceded creation and still surrounds it
- Traditional form
- A man standing in water, arms raised to lift the solar barque
1 attributed
What is it said to do?
Where these powers cluster
The 1 offices attributed to Nun, grouped by kind. Segment width is the share of powers falling in each category.
A bar dominated by one colour means a specialist; an even spread means a figure the sources credit with almost anything.
- material1
2 texts
Which texts say so, and where do they disagree?
When these texts were written
Each dot is one of the 2 texts that names Nun, placed at that text's approximate date.
A wide spread means the figure was carried across many centuries and traditions; a tight cluster means a single period produced the whole record.
2 texts spanning roughly 800 years
Where the texts differ
- Name: given as Nun, Nu
The waters that were there before anything, out of which the mound rose and into which the sun goes at night. Nun is not created and never stops surrounding the created world, which is why the texts can appeal to a state older than the gods.
The inert waters from which Atum rose. Egypt did not imagine creation as something from nothing, but as order lifted out of an ocean that never went away.
Connections
What is it connected to?
Placement
Where does it sit in the hierarchies?
Answered from the sources
Common questions
Which texts mention Nun?
Is Nun the same as Tiamat?
What rank is Nun?
How else is Nun spelled?
What is Nun said to do?
How old is Nun?
Nearest in the corpus
If Nun is what you came for, these are next
Chosen by proximity rather than by popularity: the same pantheon first, then the same rank, then the same kind of figure.
Khepri
The Morning Sun · Egyptian
The sun at dawn, in the form of a scarab beetle rolling it up over the horizon — one of the three daily aspects of the sun, and a pun on the word for coming into being.
Anubis
Guide of the Dead · Egyptian
Embalmer and psychopomp, who leads the dead to the scales — the office Western tradition eventually gives to Michael and to Azrael.
Horus
Falcon King · Egyptian
Son of Osiris, who contends eighty years with Set for the throne. Every living pharaoh was understood to be his incarnation.
Isis
Great of Magic · Egyptian
The great magician who reassembles Osiris and tricks Ra into surrendering his secret name. Her cult eventually reached as far as Roman Britain.
Nephthys
Lady of the House · Egyptian
Set's wife who sides with her sister Isis against him, and mourns Osiris at the head of the bier.
Osiris
Lord of the Dead · Egyptian
Murdered by Set, reassembled by Isis, and installed as judge of the dead. He is the earliest fully developed dying-and-rising sovereign we have.
The books behind Nun
Every claim on this profile is attributed to one of these. They are public domain, listed oldest first, and each links to a full text where one is freely available.
The Pyramid Texts
Anonymous; carved for the kings and queens of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties · c. 2350–2100 BCE · Old Egyptian
Read The Pyramid Texts in full ↗The Egyptian Book of the Dead
Anonymous; tr. E. A. Wallis Budge · c. 1550 BCE onward · Egyptian
Read The Egyptian Book of the Dead in full ↗Cover: Public domain · Hunefer · Wikimedia file page
Corpus last revised 29 August 2026. A reference site’s credibility rests on being maintained, so this is the date the sourced records last changed — not the date the page was rebuilt.