Here in Egypt, the sun doesn’t just shine; it commands. It can give life and, in the height of a Luxor summer, it can feel like it has the power to take it away. No deity embodies this potent, dual nature of the sun better than the lioness goddess, Sekhmet. Her name itself means “The Powerful One,” and to understand her is to understand a fundamental force of ancient Egyptian belief—a story we love to explore on our Egypt tours.
Her story is one of my favourites, a dramatic tale of creation, destruction, and the delicate balance between them. It has been many years now since I was first introduced to Sekhmet in her private chapel at Karnak Temple
It begins with a rebellion. The sun god Ra, now old and ruling from his celestial realm, saw that humanity had grown disrespectful and was plotting against him. Enraged, he decided to punish mankind. He called upon his daughter, the Eye of Ra—a manifestation of his fierce, untamable power. He plucked her from his brow and sent her to earth in the form of a lioness: Sekhmet.
She descended with a single, terrifying purpose: to destroy.
The tales say she waded into the desert, her fury incarnate. She hunted the rebellious humans, her jaws crushing bones, her thirst for blood unquenchable. What began as righteous punishment tipped into a frenzy of uncontrolled carnage. The red desert sand, Egyptians said, was stained from her slaughter.
Ra watched from above and realised his terrible miscalculation. His vengeance was about to wipe out all of humanity, leaving a silent, empty world. But how do you stop a force of nature you have unleashed?
He devised a clever, desperate plan. He ordered his messengers to run to the island of Elephantine in Aswan and fetch vast quantities of red ochre. Meanwhile, he had 7,000 jars of beer brewed. The red ochre was mixed with the beer until it looked exactly like a vast lake of blood.
They poured this crimson beer onto the fields where Sekhmet was due to hunt next. The lioness goddess, her muzzle already bloody, saw the lake and believed it to be the remains of her prey. She bent down and drank, and drank, and drank… until the beer made her so drowsy she fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.
She awoke not as the vengeful Destroyer, but as Hathor—the goddess of love, music, and motherhood. The pacified Eye of Ra. Balance was restored. Humanity was saved from extinction by divine trickery, and Sekhmet’s wrath was quenched.
But she was never gone. This story explains her two faces.
She was Sekhmet the Avenger, the goddess of plague and war, whose breath was the hot desert wind, the bringer of pestilence. Pharaohs, such as Ramses III would invoke her fury on the battlefield, hoping she would breathe fire into their enemies’ hearts.
Yet, she was also Sekhmet the Protector, the patron goddess of healers and physicians. Why? Because the very force that can cause disease was also believed to have the power to cure it. To ward off plague, you would make an offering to the goddess who controlled it. Her priests were among the most advanced doctors in the ancient world, a fascinating detail that often comes up when delving into Egyptian history and culture.
You will find her everywhere in Luxor and beyond. She stands in proud, granite rows at the Precinct of Mut at Karnak Temple—over 700 statues were erected there to appease her and ask for her protection. I visited this place known now as the Precinct. of Mut when the statues were almost submerged beneath a sea of tall, yellow grasses. Sekhmet is a formidable sight: the body of a woman, the head of a lioness, often crowned with the solar disk and uraeus cobra. She is both beautiful and terrifying, a reminder of the raw, untamed power that lies just beneath the surface of creation.
For me, Sekhmet is the ultimate lesson in balance. She teaches us that true power is not just about strength, but about its control. That healing and destruction are two sides of the same coin. She is the fierce, protective energy that a grandmother channels for her family, and the unwavering force that guides us through challenging times.
When you join us on one of our Luxor tours, we’ll point her out. You can stand before one of her statues and feel that ancient, potent energy for yourself. It’s these layers of meaning—the stories within the stones—that we love to share, whether I’m with you personally or my guide is offering their expertise. t’s what turns a simple temple visit into a moment of connection with the powerful, passionate heart of ancient Egypt.
After a day contemplating powerful goddesses, there’s no better place to return to than the peaceful sanctuary of Mara House. And for any traveler seeking to understand how to prepare for such profound experiences, my best travel advice for Egypt is always available.