Sekhmet was an egyptian goddess of fire and occasionally war, depending on the time period. That, in a way, says a lot about the egyptian relgion, where the relgion changed constantly as gods were made more and less important depending on the pharoah. She was also one of the many sun gods.
Pictures of on temple walls and on tomb walls represent her as a woman with a lion's body and, on one occasion, a monkey tail. When sitting, she was depicted holding an ankh (the egyptian symbol of life) and, when standing, a flail.
The Egyptians were very afraid of Sekhmet. According to ancient writings, "The Seven arrows of Sekhmet" was a lethal curse the goddess could place on you if you disrespected the relgion. Every year, on the last day of the year, a special ritual was undertaken to appease Sekhmet and stop here attacking Egypt, which she could only do on the first day of the new year. On the first day of the new year, amulets were given out in her shape to appease here further.
Like a large number of their gods, the Egyptians had a cult based around Sekhmet and her kin. The cult was based round the worship of Sekhmet, the out of control fire, war and desert goddess, her counter part Hathor, the love goddess, Sekhmet's son Nefertem, god of masculine beauty and Nefertem's father Ptah, the god of creation, healing and leadership.
Towards the end of the Egypt's greatness, Sekhmet was "killed off", so to speak. According to legend, Sekhmet went on a rampage, and Ra sent many heroes to stop her. She defeated them all, but saw the reason they had risked their lives, their love for Egypt. Becuase of this, she embraced love and transformed into a love goddess. The video below shows an alternative version of the legend.