The “Bast” Origami Models from Ancient Egypt

I’ve always been a big fan of ancient Egypt and Egyptian mythology so I was quite excited to find a bunch of really great Egyptian themed origami models. This post was originally posted on January 9, 2017 but because I like Egypt so much (and because I saw some more excellent models) I’ve gone back and made some updates to include more images.

Everything from specific Egyptian gods to symbols, pyramids, mummies and more can be folded out of paper.

First, take a look at this paper version of Thoth, the Egyptian god associated with the arbitration of godly disputes, magic, writing, science and the judgement of the dead.

Thoth, Designed and Folded by Tom Defoirdt

Here we have an incredible Giza pyramid scene that’s folded out of a single sheet of paper. The paper is 80cm by 80cm and Andrey Ermakov almost ran out of room. The entire scene took 25 hours to fold.

Giza OP. 38 (ver. 2.5), Designed and Folded by Andrey Ermakov

Instructions not available

Some schools of thought believed that the phoenix originated in ancient Egypt so it’s the perfect excuse to include this fantastic phoenix designed and folded by Choi Ju Young.

Phoenix, Designed and Folded by Choi Ju Young

Instructions not available

Anubis is the Egyptian god of death and protector of the underworld. He might be the most popular Egyptian god and there are several great origami designs of him. Like this one designed by Yoshimasa Tsuruta.

Anubis, Designed and Folded by Yoshimasa Tsuruta

Instructions not available

Apis was a bull headed Egyptian god that was worshipped in Memphis.

Apis Head, Designed and Folded by Antoine S. (origoku)

Instructions not available

Here’s a pair of expensive pyramids folded from Canadian $100 bills. These were commissioned for a business magazine. Joseph Wu originally wanted to use actual Egyptian money for folding these but he couldn’t find any new, clean bills at any of the currency exchanges in his area. He ended up using $100 bills because of their colour.

$100 Pyramids, Designed and Folded by Joseph Wu

Instructions not available

You can’t have a post about Egypt without including a paper Sphinx.

Sphinx, Designed and Folded by Quentin Trollip

Instructions not available

Cats are very important in ancient Egypt and here’s Bast or Bastet, the Egyptian cat goddess.

Bastet, Designed and Folded by Daniel Chang

Instructions not available

Here’s another excellent Anubis design.

Anubis, Designed and Folded by Eric Vigier

This is another pyramid design that’s more organic and wet folded. This scene is also folded from a single sheet of paper.

Pyramids, Designed and Folded by Stefan

Instructions not available

Here’s a very complex and impressive sort of tessellated version of Ramses the Great.

Ramses the Great, Designed and Folded by Andrey Ermakov

Instructions not available

This is another great design for the god Thoth.

Thoth, Designed and Folded by Eric Vigier

Instructions not available

Joseph Wu created these great chibi versions of a bunch of different Egyptian gods. From left to right on the top row we have Isis, Horus, Tauret and Osiris. On the bottom row we have Anubis, Bastet, Thoth and Hathor. These are based on his ninja design.

Chibi Egyptian Gods, Designed and Folded by Joseph Wu

Instructions not available

Here’s a fantastic origami version of King Tut’s mask. The gold and blue paper is absolutely perfect.

King Tut, Designed and Folded by Quentin Trollip

Instructions not available

This paper Anubis looks like it could be right out of a set of hieroglyphics or Egyptian art.

Anubis, Designed and Folded by Tom Defoirdt

Instructions not available

I believe this next model is Ageb, the Egyptian god of the earth. The dance pose in this model is a great touch.

Ageb, Designed and Folded by Eric Vigier

Instructions not available

This is a pretty cool pyramid design. I really like how you can see individually folded bricks on the side.

Brick Pyramid, Designed and Folded by Mitya Miller

Instructions not available

Here’s another great Bastet design by Joseph Wu.

Bastet, Designed and Folded by Joseph Wu

Instructions not available

Here are a couple of great Egyptian designs, the Eye of Horus and a pharaoh mask.

Eye of Horus, Designed by Huang Tien Quyet, Pharaoh Designed by Jacky Chan, Both Folded by Andrey Ermakov

Eye of Horus crease pattern available from Photobucket

Pharaoh crease pattern available from Jacky Chan’s website

Here’s another absolutely fantastic Anubis design. He sure is popular. This is folded from a single 120cm x 120cm square sheet of paper and I love all the details here and the different angles showing everything off.

Anubis, Designed and Folded by Tkak Sakai

Daniel designed this really awesome mummy. The mummy and the box it’s in are both folded from the same single sheet of paper!

Mummy, Designed and Folded by Daniel

Instructions not available

This is another absolutely incredible mummy design! This is something a bit different. The whole thing is folded from a single square sheet of paper but there are cuts here to make the bandages. It’s amazing to see how you can unwrap the model here and there’s a whole folded and detailed body underneath.

Mummy, Designed and Folded by Hubert Villeneuve

Instructions not available

Here’s a great tessellated version of a scarab beetle.

Scarab, Designed and Folded by Melina Hermsen

Instructions not available

Our final model for this post is easily the best origami Anubis design I’ve ever seen. The entire model is folded from one single sheet of paper. If you use double sided paper you end up with some awesome colour changes for the clothing and eyes.

Anubis, Designed and Folded by Hubert Villeneuve

Instructions not available

That’s it for this post. If you know of any other awesome looking Egyptian origami please let me know in the comments!

I've been into origami for quite some time now, and I've been teaching it here on Origami.me for over 14 years. My other hobbies include martial arts, travel, video games and Go. I'm also the author of Everyone Can Learn Origami. You should definitely check it out!