Describe the ways in which the natural environment influenced spiritual life and religious beliefs in ancient Egypt

What will be an ideal response?

Ancient Egyptian civilization emerged and thrived along the banks of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. Its geography, climate, and the distinctive features of the natural environment worked to shape the worldviews and religious beliefs of all ancient peoples. In the hot, arid climate of Northeast Africa, where ample sunlight made possible the cultivation of crops, the sun god held the place of honor. The 365-day cycle of the Nile's inundation became the basis of the solar calendar and the primary source of Egypt's deep sense of order. In the regularity of the sun's daily cycle and the Nile's annual deluge, ancient Egyptians found security. Ancient Egyptians viewed the sun's daily ascent in the east as symbolic of the god's "rebirth"; his daily resurrection signified the victory of the forces of day, light, purity, goodness, and life over those of night, darkness, ignorance, evil, and death.
From the natural elements—the sun, the Nile, and the largely flat topography of North Africa—they also constructed their cosmology,that is, their theory of the origin and structure of the universe. Egyptian myths of creation describe the earth as a flat platter floating on the waters of the underworld. At the beginning of time, the Nile's primordial waters brought forth a mound of silt, out of which emerged the self-generating sun god; and from that god, the rest of Egypt's gods were born.