The preceding chapters have attempted to show how ancient Egyptian religious beliefs and practices functioned in the community and how those beliefs formed patterns of human behavior. The influence of religion was everywhere. The most prominent features of the built landscape – temples and tombs – served as sacred space, and so much of the immense material legacy of the culture – coffins and mummies, statues, figurines, amulets, and papyri – are manifestations of religious beliefs. These physical traces of Egyptian religion and cult practices are uniquely and distinctively products of Egypt – they cannot be mistaken for the material legacy of any other culture. This distinctiveness may be due to the close relationship of the material culture to the environment. Their myths, religious beliefs, and resulting cult actions are all reflections of the natural world of the Egyptians, who were keen observers of their physical surroundings. Just as the environment of the Nile Valley is unique, the culture that it stimulated is unlike any encountered elsewhere.

However, it is not just the religion's creativity and uniqueness that are so striking but also its longevity. It is safe to suggest that the beliefs and practices that comprised Egyptian religion must have benefited individuals and the society itself, and must have provided what people wanted and needed. If not, the beliefs surely would have been abandoned rather than embraced as they were for three millennia.