“[....] Egypt [.....

] is, for the Egyptians, a land reclaimed from the sea and a gift from the river [...]”

“When a person of a certain category dies in a house, the entire female flock of the house in question
smears mud on their heads […] they leave the body at home and they walk around the entire city, hitting
each other on the chest.” [...] after making these expressions of mourning, they take the body to be
embalmed.”

Herodotus

The nine books of history

HISTORICAL SCOPE

Hutkaptah , better known today as Egypt, saw a great civilization emerge from its bowels in the middle of
the 4th millennium that it would eclipse until its decline, at the end of the 4th century AD. C, to great
cultures of the time such as the Sumerian. And, during its almost forty centuries of history, Egypt would
give birth to a culture whose manifestations would remain immutable and imperishable over time.

Its beginnings date back to the Lower Paleolithic when the first signs of human life began to appear in the
Nile Valley, but it will not be until the Upper Paleolithic when Egypt can be identified as its own cultural
environment.

At this time, a period of extreme drought caused the first inhabitants of the Shahara savannas to move to
the Nile Valley where a climate change that occurred around 10,000 AD and the resources of the river
favored the neolithization of Egypt, giving rise to the development of livestock farming. and agriculture on
the edges of the valley. In this stage a series of cultures emerged such as the Meridense in Lower Egypt
or the Tasian in Upper Egypt.

The transition from the Neolithic to the Predynastic period occurred in the middle of the 6th millennium
with the Badarian culture, where the cult of the dead was already fully established and where the first
features of community and urban organization can be seen.

The unification of the North with the South and the appearance of a mixed culture did not occur until the
end of the Gerzeense culture (3150 BC). C) with the figure of Narmer. From this moment on, there were
almost five centuries in which Egyptian civilization began to acquire its definitive characteristics through
the first two dynasties whose founder was Aha.

This period is known as the Tinite Era since Tinis is considered the place of origin from which the unifying
impulse and dynasties emerged. The capital was established in Memphis until Peribsen moved it to
Abydos in the Second Dynasty. The country was organized into provinces controlled by officials and the
monarch became the political base, thus giving the first vestiges of a monarchy of a divine nature.

In the reigns of Khasekhem and Hudjefa, kings of the Second Dynasty, a series of political conflicts
occurred that gave rise to a new division between North and South. Khasekhemuy, the last king of the
dynasty, will once again reunify Egypt, laying the foundations of the centralized State of the Old
Kingdom.

This new stage in Egyptian history was characterized by the great development of arts and religion, and
by the centralization of power around the king and the royal family. The first foundations of a hierarchical
society are laid, the administration is divided into two chancelleries, the White House and the Red House,
and the first foreign trade routes are established.

The IV dynasty stands out from this period. Snoferu, its first representative, was a very active king who
intervened in the Sinai and Libya, and his successors Khéops, Khefren and Mycerinus built the famous
pyramids of Gizah.
The Old Kingdom ends with the reign of Nitocris, the first known queen to exercise political power in
Egypt, and with the signs of a political crisis that would last a century and a half. This stage is known as
the First Intermediate Period.

Egypt returned to the division of its origins, giving rise to the IX and X dynasties ruling at the same time,
which caused serious disputes for power. It is the time of the nomarchs and the Hyksos, who were
introduced into the country. Furthermore, the Assyrians invaded the Delta until they were expelled by
Khery V, 10th dynasty.

The crisis ends when Mentuhotep I, a Theban prince who did not see himself as a nomarch, reunifies the
two lands, Upper and Lower Egypt, thus beginning a new period called the Middle Kingdom.

The capital is moved to Thebes, the golden age of Egyptian literature takes place and the hathoric order
is imposed in art. With Sestrosis III, king of the 12th dynasty, the peak of this period took place. He
reorganized the administration by dividing Egypt into three ministries: Upper, Lower and Middle,
abolished the position of nomarch except for that of Antiopolis and carried out numerous campaigns in
Palestine and Nubia.

This era of splendor and prosperity was cut short with the beginning of a new Intermediate Period that
would last almost two centuries at the end of the 12th dynasty with Queen Sebeknefrure.

As in all periods of crisis, Egypt is divided again, giving rise to several parallel dynasties. The Hyksos,
who had entered the country in the First Intermediate Period, conquered power and established two
dynasties, the XV and the XVI. This people of Asian origin introduced great innovations to Egypt such as
battle chariots or the curved sword that made Egyptian military weapons progress.

Great literary texts continue to be written and a new invading people appears, the Hebrews. With the
17th dynasty a conflict will begin that will confront Seqenenre Taa I and Apophis I, 15th dynasty of the
Hyksos. This stage will come to an end with Ahmose I, successor of the last Theban king of the 17th
dynasty who will end up expelling the Hyksos, marking the beginning of the New Kingdom.

This period stands out for being the most flourishing of all. After reconquering and reorganizing the
country, Egypt opens up to the Middle East. This opening will begin with the marriage pacts between
Egyptians, Hurrians and Cassites, and with Thutmose III, sixth pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, who
extended the Egyptian borders to the Euphrates.

In the religious sphere, the birth of the god Aton took place with Amenophis IV and the subsequent
religious schism that would lead him to suppress the other Egyptian gods.

Already in the 19th dynasty Ramses II managed to stop the Hittites in the battle of Kadesh, despite the
fact that there were neither winners nor losers, and his successor, Merenptah, is credited with the
expulsion of the Hebrews.

After the dynasty of the Ramessides (XX), where Ramses III managed to contain and expel the people
from the sea, a third period of crisis occurred that would lead Egypt to a stage of political decline, with its
fragmentation into several States and the intervention of several foreign peoples such as the Libyans and
the Ethiopians.

It will be in the XXVI dynasty, with the Saite pharaoh Psammetichus I, when Egypt manages to get rid of
the Libyan dynasties of the Delta and expel the Ethiopians from Upper Egypt. The country once again
experienced a new period of splendor until the Persian, Greek and Roman invasions.

At the end of Egyptian history, the Ptolemy dynasty stands out, where Queen Cleopatra VII had a tragic
encounter with Rome that would end with her death and the subsequent disappearance of Egypt as an
independent State.
 GEOGRAPHICAL SCOPE

If we speak in geographical terms, Egypt is located in North Africa and delimited to the west by Libya, to
the south by Sudan and to the east by the Red Sea. But ancient Egypt, where such a great civilization
developed, is located mainly in the long strip of land that extends along the lower course of the Nile.

These lands, which were converted into a veritable garden, contrast notably with the vast desert terrain
that frames them: the Libyan Desert, to the west, and the Arabian Desert, to the east. This is why the
ancient Egyptians called their land both Kemet and Desheret .

The term Kemet means the black (land), while Desheret means the red (land). Both words refer to the
enormous differentiation they perceived between the blackness of the lands near the Nile, caused by the
silt provided by the river itself, and the reddish lands of the desert. “[...] Egypt is neither like Arabia, which
borders it, nor Libya, nor Syria [...], but its land is black and cloddy in that it is composed of silt and
alluvial deposits. brought from Ethiopia by the river.” Herodotus, book II.

In terms of structure and dimensions, it is Herodotus who also describes Egypt to us: “From the coast
and up to Heliopolis, inland, Egypt is wide, completely flat, and rich in water and silt. [...] Above
Heliopolis, however, Egypt is narrow.”

The main source of wealth in Egypt is the Nile River. This river, the longest in the world, originates in
Lake Victoria, between Uganda and Tanzania. From there it runs 6,695 kilometers until its mouth into the
Mediterranean Sea. Its main tributary is the Khartoum or “Blue Nile”, which originates in Ethiopia.

This river became the soul of Egypt thanks to its floods. “ [...] the Nile descends high for one hundred
days from the summer solstice and, once that number of days is reached, it returns to its channel and
lowers the level of its current, so that throughout the winter it remains low until a new summer solstice.”
Herodotus, book II.

Both today and in ancient times, the Sinai Peninsula, located to the northeast, was the gateway to the
Near East. The Egyptians called it “the country of turquoises”, since that was where they imported this
precious stone from. Nubia also had an important role in its history, located between Egypt and Sudan,
this land was a source of wealth and a source of disputes.

THE RELIGION

After emerging from the dark times of Prehistory and entering the Neolithic, the Egyptian religion was
formed and developed until it finally emerged at the end of the 4th millennium BC.

Thus the first gods were born, whom we can call predynastic. They were soon recognized and accepted
by the clans, in which the leader assumed the role of mediator between men and the gods.

Little by little the gods, rites, worship and myths evolved until they gave way to a complex pantheon
where both local and celestial or funerary divinities can be found.

For the Egyptians, the cosmos and nature were the result of the action of their gods, considering them
forces of this world whose action was revealed in the wind, rain, sun, plants or even animals.

From the beginning, all of these gods were represented totally or partially in a zoomorphic manner with
attributes of plants, such as the lotus, and objects, such as the scepter.

In this complex polytheistic religion, the different theological ideas were organized around sacred
numbers through which the gods were grouped, creating a cosmogonic system through which they tried
to explain the origins of the universe and man.
The cult centers where the most important cosmogonies were elaborated were Heliopolis, Hermopolis,
Thebes and Memphis.

Heliopolitan cosmogony: this theory begins with Nun, a god who represents the primordial waters, an
unorganized mass that contains within itself both the germ of life and negative forces.

In the midst of this chaos, the sun, Re, is born, a god who, in addition to being his own creator, brings to
the world from his own semen the god Shu, the Dry, and Tefnut, the Moist. From their union Nut, the Sky,
and Geb, the Earth, are born, making the human race appear for the first time as a woman and a man.

These two gods, Heaven and Earth, had four children: Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys. The first couple
formed by Osiris and Isis constituted the prototype of the royal family and gave rise to Busirite mythology.

Hermopolitan cosmogony: in this cosmogony the god Thot gives rise, in the midst of chaos, with his
word, to four pairs of frogs, which embody the masculine principle, and snakes, which embody the
feminine principle.

The couple formed by Nun and Naunet represented the primordial water, Kek and Keket the darkness,
Heh and Heket the infinite and Amun and Amaunet represented the hidden and the mysterious.

The four couples generated an Egg, from within which the sun emerged.

The Memphite cosmogony developed around the god Ptah, demiurge creator of the world, and who
through word and thought had given rise to the other gods. Therefore Atum was his thought, Horus his
heart, Thoth his tongue and the Ennead his lips and teeth.

The Theban cosmogony had Amun as its protagonist and sole creator; elements from Heliopolis and
Hermopolis were mixed in it.

Amun was born from the Egg that emerged from the primordial waters, they placed him as the father of
the Ennead, Heliopolitan cosmogony, and of the Ogdoad, Hermopolitan cosmogony.

After the great theological systems emerged, the townspeople found them so complicated and the gods
so far removed from their problems, that they created a simpler system based on the family unit: the
triads.

The triad par excellence was the Osiris, formed by Osiris, Isis and their son Horus. Also worth
highlighting is the national triad, the Theban, composed of the god Amun, his wife Mut and his son
Khonsu.

THE GODS

Of all the gods that make up the complex and polytheistic Egyptian religion we must highlight:

& Re: solar god venerated especially in Heliopolis, he was associated first with Horus and later with
Amun. With him the idea of the cyclical journey of the sun appeared, Re made a daytime and a nighttime
journey in his boat.

Among its various forms were Khepri, represented as a beetle and considered the god of cyclical
renewal, that is, the morning sun. The god Atum of human forms was considered the evening form, the
evening.

& Amun: main god of Thebes was originally considered a god of wind and air. His name means “the
Hidden One” and he was represented on many occasions in the form of a ram.

Numerous temples were erected in his name, of which the most notable was that of Karnak, and he
ended up being associated with the god Re.
& Thot: lunar god venerated in the city of Hermopolis, he was presented with the head of an ibis and
sometimes in the form of a baboon.

He was the god of writing, measurements and notary of the gods. He occupied an important position
within the divine court and was also in charge of protecting the boat from the sun.

& Ptah: creator god worshiped in Memphis, he was represented as a mummy with a shaved head.

Also considered the god of artisans, it was believed that he was incarnated in the bull Apis, which was
his spokesperson.

& Hathor: celestial goddess whose main cult center was in Dandara. She was represented as a woman
with cow ears or as a woman with a cow's head.

She was the goddess of joy and love, and a symbol of motherhood and breastfeeding. In Thebes she
was associated with the world of the dead as the “Lady of the West.”

& Nephthys: considered a beneficent goddess, she was the “Lady of the house.” Wife of Seth and mother
of Anubis, she wore the sign of the house-tomb on her head.

It was believed that she lived in hostile lands where she guided travelers, attributing magical powers to
her.

& Nut: goddess of the sky, she was represented as a celestial vault in the form of a woman leaning over
the Earth, leaning on it with her feet and hands.

It was believed that at night it swallowed the sun and made it reborn every morning.

& Maat: abstract divinity that represents balance, harmony and cosmic order. She was represented in the
form of a woman with a feather on her head.

It was considered the measure of all things, from justice to truth, since it was the counterweight that
balanced the soul of the deceased on the scales of Thoth during the funeral judgment.

OSIRIS

In the beginning, Osiris was a god of fertility and the harvest of a small town in the Delta called Busiris.

Son of Geb and Nut, the Earth and the Sky, he was the brother of Isis, Nephthys and Seth. As the
firstborn he had the right to inherit his father's reign over the earth.

But his brother Seth, jealous, devised a plan to take the throne from him. He built a chest with the exact
measurements of Osiris.

Inviting his brother to a party, he promised that he would hand over the chest to whoever could fit inside.
Osiris tried his luck and once inside, they covered the box and threw it into the river.

His wife and sister Isis, heartbroken, set out in search of her husband and, after finding him, Seth
discovered him and cut Osiris' body into several pieces that he scattered throughout Egypt.

Isis, helped by her sister Nephthys, found the pieces of her husband one by one. After being embalmed
by Anubis, Isis managed to get Osiris to impregnate her and from their union Horus was born.

Horus was hidden in the city of Buto with the help of Hathor. The little god grew to an age that allowed
him to confront his uncle Seth.

After a long struggle between the two, the court of the gods grants Horus to be integrated into his father's
inheritance, and he is granted the kingdom of the dead.
& Osiris is represented as a mummy wearing the atef crown made of plant stems and ostrich feathers. As
king of the afterlife he was endowed with the insignia of the monarch, the curved scepter and the
flagellum.

As god and supreme judge of the dead, he was the representative of the righteous cosmic order in the
afterlife.

& Isis: represented the royal power she had received as the wife of Osiris, her name means “throne.”

Although she did not have her own place of worship, she was venerated throughout Egypt in relation to
the rise of the cult of her husband Osiris.

She was also called the “Great Magician” because she was associated with certain special magical
powers. She was represented in the form of a woman with a throne on her head.

& Seth: lord of the desert and god of storms, he symbolized the destructive forces with his voice being
thunder. Its zoological determination of the animal that represents it is not clearly defined.

Despite being a god associated with evil, he had a certain prestige to such an extent that the Hyksos
made him their protective god.

& Horus: solar divinity who, as son and heir of Osiris, obtained the position of playing the role of
legitimate successor to his father, becoming the defender of cosmic order. Represented in the form of a
falcon, it was identified with Re.

Many monarchs used the title of Horus for their royal protocol, thus resulting in him being identified with
the living king.

His divinity experienced various forms such as “Horus the Elder” or “Horus the Child”.

FUNERAL RITES

Like many other religions, the ancient Egyptians believed in life after death. This deep belief took root in
prehistoric times, the deceased was buried in the fetal position accompanied, depending on the culture,
with few or many offerings.

Between the 3rd and 6th Dynasty, funerary rites were an exclusively royal privilege, but as time went by,
the nobles gained access to this cult until finally, in the Middle Kingdom, anyone could enjoy a life in the
Hereafter.

The god Anubis was in charge of embalming and guardian of the necropolis. He was represented as a
jackal or as a man with the head of a jackal or dog.

Other functions that this god assumed were to guide the soul of the deceased in the Hereafter and to
monitor the oscillation of the scales during the judgment of the Soul.

& Mummification: for the Egyptians, death meant the separation of the elements that made up the body;
if you managed to reunite them, you could enjoy life in the other world.

Therefore, the purpose of mummification was the preservation of the body or det in which it was believed
that, even after death, the ka or soul-type spiritual entity continued to live.

At first this rite was very rudimentary, only the viscera were removed because they were the part of the
body that was previously corrupted.

With time and the advancement of techniques, it became possible to remove all those elements from the
body that were decomposing.
Thanks to Herodotus we know the mummification techniques that were carried out in the uabet or
Embalming Houses. These techniques differed from each other depending on the cost.

The first model of embalming, the cheapest of the three, consisted of two treatments. The embalmer
“cleanses the abdominal cavity with a purge, (and) preserves the body in natron for seventy days”
(Herodotus, book II).

The second model, which consisted of three treatments, was of the medium type. The embalmers “fill
syringes with an oil obtained from the juniper tree, fill the abdominal cavity of the corpse with them [...],
injecting the liquid through the anus and preventing its return, and they conserve it in natron the number
of days prescribed (70). At the end of the process they remove the oil from the abdominal [...] the fleshy
parts, in turn, are dissolved by natron [...]” (Herodotus, book II)

The third type of embalming was the most sumptuous of all and consisted of eight treatments. The dead
man's brain was extracted with a hook through the nostrils. Then with a knife, an incision was made in his
left side.

Through this incision, all the viscera were removed, breaking the diaphragm, only the heart and kidneys
were left due to their difficult access.

The liver, lungs, stomach and intestines, after being embalmed, were placed in vessels that were called
canopes. These vessels presented as lids the heads of the sons of Horus: Amset, Hapy, Duamuntef and
Qebehsenuef.

Once the body was empty it was “salted” with natron where it had to remain for about thirty-five days,
despite Herodotus saying seventy. The blackening caused by natron was dyed with ocher or henna.

After being dyed, the abdomen and chest were stuffed with cloth soaked with aromas and ointments. The
last stage was to bandage it.

First each limb was bandaged with strips of linen and then wrapped with a large piece of cloth. During
this process the embalmers placed amulets, jewelry and sometimes funerary texts between the
bandages.

& The mummy: Once all the embalming was completed, the mummy was covered with a mask made of
cardboard or gold and lapis lazuli, depending on the mummified character. Over time, this mask
increased in size until it became a plate that covered the entire body of the dead.

The mummy was placed in the sarcophagus, which, like the mask, underwent an evolution. At first it was
just a square-shaped box until it became an element carved in stone that took the shape of the body.

Friends and family collected the body and gathered at the deceased's house, where the mourners cried,
screamed and scattered ashes on themselves.

& The burial: After the great loss of the dead had been loudly lamented, a funeral procession transported
him along with his grave goods to the western bank of the Nile, the abode of the dead.

The deceased, like the sun, was on a journey towards said shore, the place where the star dies, to
reappear the next day in the East.

The trousseau consisted mainly of various personal objects whose mission was to provide comfort to the
deceased in the Afterlife: jugs, chests, chairs, beds, headboards.

From his house, the mummy was transported on a catafalque dragged by oxen or by relatives of the
deceased. Next to the coffin was the priest and behind him the family and friends of the deceased.
The procession was closed by the mourners and the bearers of the trousseau and the canopic vessels.

One of the last funerary rites was the opening of the mouth. The ceremony consisted of a set of rites
performed on the mummy or on a statue of the deceased in an upright position and facing south.

This set of rites was aimed at restoring the vital functions of the dead and thus bringing him back to life.

A priest, after having placed the mummy on a small mound of earth that evoked the primeval hill,
proceeded to purify it with a libation of water and a sprinkling of incense.

Later, the Sem priest touched the mummy's mouth with the dyeba and offered him the noblest parts of
certain animals that had been previously sacrificed.

Once again, the sem priest, after some animated scenes, opened his mouth again with a definitive
object, the pesech-kaf .

To finish the rite, their sacred clothes and ornaments were placed on the deceased, while a reading of
exhortative formulas was performed.

Once the rite of opening the mouth and the funerary banquet had finished, the mummy was placed inside
its tomb, which was sealed for eternity.

& Graves: like embalming, tombs or burials also underwent an evolution with their respective
modifications.

In prehistoric times, the dead person, wrapped in skins and with some funerary items, was placed directly
on the ground. Soon these precarious burials evolved into the well-known mastabas.

These tombs were shaped like a truncated pyramid with an excavated well, at the bottom of which was
the sepulchral chamber. At ground level the statue of the dead was placed in the serdab , a chapel
containing a small compartment.

In the Old Kingdom the first pyramids appeared with the III and IV dynasties. The first of all was carried
out by King Djoser in Saqqara. This tomb was made up of a succession of superimposed mastabas
where the funerary chamber was also located underground.

Already in the IV dynasty, with the kings Khéops, Khefren and Mycerinus, the pyramid reached its most
perfect form. Called straight-sloped, these pyramids were a labyrinthine complex of stairs, corridors,
chambers and false corridors.

The funerary chambers of both the king and the queen were located inside the pyramid itself, although
another underground chamber was also built to mislead those who wanted to desecrate the tomb and
thus disturb the dead in his other life.

During the Middle Kingdom, the mastaba was returned again due to the lack of funds and the periods of
crisis that Egypt was going through.

In the New Kingdom, thanks to a resurgence of this notable culture, the Egyptian pharaohs opted for
hypogeums excavated in a secluded valley, open between the Theban mountains.

This Valley is the beginning of a wadi excavated by the rains that wore down the limestone and formed a
depression. Known as sekhet aat , the great meadow, the funerary character of this place is given by the
presence of a mountain called el-Kurn.

Dominating the Valley, el-Kurn, with its pyramid shape, watched over the royal tombs. The goddess of
silence also lived there, who subjected the craftsmen in charge of building the tombs to a severe test.
 THE BOOK OF THE DEAD

A culture as religious as the Egyptian developed a great and varied funerary literature from its
beginnings. Its most immediate purpose was to capture, whether on stone or papyrus, the ra-u or spells
necessary to neutralize the dangers that could arise for the dead in the afterlife.

The first texts that collected these magical formulas intended to facilitate the ascension to heaven of the
deceased, were the so-called Pyramid Texts .

Collected by the priests of Heliopolis, writings were found on the walls of the burial chamber of King
Unas, 5th Dynasty.

With these inscriptions engraved forever on the stone, it was intended to assure the deceased of his
passage to the Beyond, thus describing his ascension to heaven and his transition to the state of Osiris.

The Pyramid Texts were written in the Old Kingdom and their access was unique and exclusive to the
kings.

“Arise, O Unas. Grab your head and gather your bones. Gather your limbs and shake off the dust of your
meat. Take your bread, which will never spoil, and your beer, which will never turn sour, and stand
before the entrance that excludes ordinary people. The gatekeeper comes out to meet you. He takes you
by the hand and leads you to heaven.” ( Pyramid Texts )

Beginning with the 7th dynasty, there was a democratization of the afterlife. Funerary beliefs had a clear
impact on the Egyptian nobles, who also desired access to life in the Afterlife.

Thus were born the Texts of the Sarcophagi , a set of rituals, hymns, prayers and magical formulas,
derived from the Texts of the Pyramids .

Like the previous ones, these inscriptions engraved on the sarcophagi were intended to provide the
deceased with the favor of the gods and their passage to the eternal and improved life of the Hereafter.

“As far as the person who knows this spell is concerned, he will be like Re in the eastern sky and like
Osiris in the underworld” ( Texts of the Sarcophagi )

From the First Intermediate Period until the Middle Kingdom, priests compiled the repeated formulas of
both the Pyramid and Sarcophagus Texts to compile a new set of texts, with some new additions, which
together would be called the Book. of the Dead .

This new funerary book would see the light during the New Kingdom. In the 18th dynasty this set of
magical practices, prayers, invocations and spells was still reproduced without any order.

It will not be until the Saite Era when the final establishment of the order of the formulas occurs under the
reign of the pharaohs of the XXVI dynasty.

The Book of the Dead was the gateway to the afterlife for all Egyptians without distinction of status or
sex. They used to be written on papyri that were placed next to the deceased, and sometimes even
between their bandages.

All spells have titles as headings that explain the use of said formula. After a blank space, the name of
the deceased was placed with the expression “Osiris N” , the acronym N replaced the proper name of the
deceased, since it was believed that every person when they died identified themselves with Osiris.

The book can be divided into four sections that allow it to be structured. The first section begins with a
prayer to the gods of the Beyond, while the following formulas that make up it present the preparation of
the corpse for its journey. The transfer of the sarcophagus along with the funeral procession and arrival
at the tomb.

The second section begins with the regeneration of the deceased in order to compare himself with Re, as
well as a request to defeat his enemies. The rest of the spells are aimed at the deceased finding his
personality by granting him the use of speech again and thus obtaining his heart.

The following chapters that make up this third section focus on the deceased and their ability to take on
the different aspects of Re. Embarking with him, the dead man accesses the different regions that make
up the world of Ultratumba. The section ends with the chapters covering the Judgment of the Soul before
Osiris.

After successfully passing the trial, the deceased manages to identify with Osiris. This last section
narrates his subsequent glorification and examination, in which he must demonstrate that he knows
everything from the names of all the gods to the twenty-one doors of the house of Osiris in the Field of
Sedges.

The last spells of the book are both a separate section without any order, and a complement to the
previous ones. Focusing on the last funerary rites, the deceased is guided in the preparation of the
glorification that he must make to Osiris, his judge and executioner.

The Book of the Dead could very well have been known in ancient times as the “book to come out into
the day”, since this was the main ra-u that provided the dead with the possibility of “coming out into the
light”, that is, to reach the afterlife, immortality.

But the ultimate goal of every deceased person was not only to achieve eternal life, deserved after
having suffered the hardships of earthly life, but also to achieve identification with Osiris-Re himself.

Probably what is best known in the entire book is none other than the famous Judgment of Osiris. The
Christian idea of the existence of a judgment after death, and of a punishment for the wicked and a
reward for the righteous, was already well known to the Egyptians.

This ceremony of psychostasis was carried out in the room of the two Maat, or two Truths. Osiris,
accompanied by other gods and 42 judges, presided over the trial. Before them the deceased had to
perform the act of negative confession twice.

Firstly before Osiris and later before the deities-judges. After declaring his innocence, his heart was
weighed on a scale along with the feather of the goddess Maat, representation of truth and justice.

If the deceased had sinned during the course of his life by committing acts against men, the heart's dish
weighed more. The punishment that awaited him was none other than being devoured by Ammit, a
monster with the head of a crocodile, the body of a lioness and the paws of a lion and a hippopotamus.

If, on the other hand, the deceased was declared righteous at heart, his reward was none other than the
life desired by the Egyptians in Iaru or paradise.

There is no doubt about the importance that these texts that made up such a famous funerary book took
on. But not all the deceased were able to enjoy the spells equally, since unfortunately the quality and
number of formulas that one could afford among their bandages were imposed by their social and
economic status. Once again, both inequality and materiality prevail even in Death itself.

THE BEYOND
Called Neter-Khert , that which is under the god, or Amentet , the West, the Egyptian Beyond was a
place well organized in terms of topography and its religious components, and was located somewhere in
the firmament.

Like many other religions, in the Egyptian religion we also find the concept of “good” and “bad”.

If during your earthly life you had been “good” and had not committed bad actions against your peers,
your reward was Iaru or paradise.

If, on the other hand, during your life you had done bad deeds against men, your punishment was the
denial of a life in the Hereafter.

That is why for those who were declared maa-kheru or pure of heart in the Judgments of the Soul, the
Hereafter represented a place where they could enjoy and enjoy all the wonders that had and would be.
From walking along the paths of the Field of Sedges like spirits or walking with Re in his solar boat, to
being equated with the different gods eternally.

For those whose sentence had been that of isefty or guilty, the Afterlife was presented as a horrible and
gloomy place in which they would suffer harsh punishment, probably corporal mutilations.

The Beyond was made up of several regions that each corresponded to the cycles that Re went through
from the time it fell into darkness sailing through the underworld until it dawned with the rebirth of the new
day.