MONT

also spelled Montu, Monthu, or Mentu in ancient Egyptian religion, god of the 4th Upper Egyptian nome (province), whose original capital of Hermonthis (modern Armant) was replaced by Thebes during the 11th dynasty (20811939 BC). Mont was a god of war. In addition to falcons, a bull was his sacred animal; from the 30th dynasty (380343 BC), this bull, the Buchis bull, received an elaborate cult. Mont was represented as a man with a falcon's head, wearing a crown of two plumes with a double uraeus (rearing cobra) on his forehead. He had important temple complexes at Karnak in Thebes and at Hermonthis, Al-Tud, and Al-Madamud in the Theban area, all of which expanded greatly in the period of Roman rule.