The Bennu bird was a manifestation of the god Osiris as an animal. He symbolized the eternal life and resurrection and sometimes he had the bo- dy of a human.
Originally the bird was a phoenix-like heron who burned himself to death every day (at sunset) in his own sheltering tree at Heliopolis in Lower Egypt and the next morning he stood up alive in his own ashes. Bennu was incorporated into the solar cult of Re and could be seen as a heron with the sun disc upon his head in the style of Re (above), or an Atef-crown with feathers (Osirian fashion) like in the picture left. He was carrying the same regalia as Osiris and wore a white or blue mummy dress under his transparent coat.
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