The god Atum (later called Sebiumeker by the Kushites) on the wall of the Lion Temple at Musawwarat es-Sufra (ca. 230 BCE).

Titles: Lord of Iunu, Lord of the Two Lands

Appearance: Varied, sometimes a man, other times a snake or a man with a ram’s head

Symbols: an isolated mound of earth or hill; a tall upright stone, called a benben; a phoenix bird that lands on the benben; and the obelisk

Sebiumeker or best known as Atum was the original sun god of the city of A’un (“Pillar”) or Iunu, which the Greeks called Heliopolis ("Sun City"). This was an ancient town that has now been absorbed by modern Cairo. In very early times there was a mound of earth in A’un. People believed that Atum raised himself up out of the surrounding swamp onto that mound and created his children, the twin gods Shu and Tefnut.

Atum was identified with the setting or “dying” sun, since he was the god of oldest time, who created everything. He is occasionally shown as an old man leaning on a cane. His name meant two different things at once. First, it meant “he who has not yet come into being,” which reminds us that his “existence” in the beginning of time was really “non-existence.” Second, it meant “the accomplished one,” which referred to his skill in creating the earth, the sun, the heavens, the Hap, the seasons, the gods, and earthly kingship.

Atum, the creator god of heaven, and the Per'ra, the creator god on earth, were very difficult to tell apart in art, because people thought that they were really the same being. They both wore the “Double Crown” of Kemetian kingship. Atum's title, “Lord of the Two Lands,” was also the title of the Per'ra. Why did they look the same? Both the Per'ra and the god were different parts of the sun, which was one being. Atum was the old, setting sun, while the king was the young, rising sun. Since the sun rose and set every day, people believed that Atum became the Per'ra in the morning and the Per'ra became Atum in the evening.

Sebiumeker was an anthropomorphic god of procreation the Meroitic (Kushite) pantheon. His main center of worship is in the temple complex at Musawwarat el-Sufra in the desert east of the sixth cataract of the Hap. Sebiumeker represented with a people head often emerges as partner of Arensnuphis. As a pair of Gods they flank the temple entrances and portals. With Amun the three form a God triad and show so interaction between the old kuschite and the new meroden traditions. Sebiumeker arises with the attributes of a king God in the Kemetian double crown and with large ears. Thus it probably stands in connection to the Kemetian God Atum. Furthermore he carrys a Ankh in the left hand and in the right hand a Scepter. The clothes consist of a three-part Schurz and a pinnated Leibchen also over the shoulders to geknoteten carriers. A halskette from large balls is a nubian attribute. As Kushite Sebiumeker carries courses of a creator God and functioned as a protection divinity. It is led beside Apedemak.