Four deities dominated Nubian religion in the Napatan and Meroitic periods.
Osiris and Isis were the funerary deities. Isis was also worshipped in temple cults, as were Amun and the only deity who had a Nubian origin, Apedemak. Each had their own cult centres.
The Temple of Isis at Philae was a favourite centre of pilgrimage for both Nubians and Egyptians. Amun had great temples at Gebel Barkal, at Napata, where he had become important during the colonial period, and another at Meroe.
Apedemak was not only Nubian in origin, but unlike Isis and Amun, who were usually represented in human form, he often appeared with a lion's head.
Apedemak's temples were lighter than the gloomy Egyptian-style temples of Isis and Amun with their rectangular plans, pylons (gateways), forecourts, columned offering halls and rear sanctuaries. Apedemak's temples had their origins in the temples of Kerma which had staircases leading up to sunlit open-air ritual places.
Another Nubian god, Mash, is known only at Karanog.
