The Book of Gates is an ancient Egyptian funerary text dating from the New Kingdom. The Book of Gates is long and detailed, consisting of one hundred scenes. It narrates the passage of a newly deceased soul into the next world journeying with of the sun god, Ra, through the underworld during the hours of the night towards his resurrection. The soul is required to pass through a series of 'gates' at each hour of the journey. Each gate is guarded by a different serpent deity that is associated with a different goddess. It is important that the deceased knows the names of each guardian. Depictions of the judgment of the dead are shown in the last three hours. The text implies that some people will pass through unharmed, but others will suffer torment in a lake of fire. At the end of Ra's journey through the underworld, he emerges anew to take his place back in the sky.
Ra traveling through the underworld in his barque, from the copy of the Book of Gates in the tomb of Ramses I (KV16).
Part of a scene of the fourth hour of the Book of the Gates from KV, tomb of Rameses IV.
KV9, Tomb of Ramses V-VI. Fourth corridor, decoration on left wall: ninth division of the Book of Gates.
On the wall, evocation of the 5th division of the Book of Gates: the court of Osiris.
The Duat is the underworld in ancient Egyptian mythology. It has been represented in hieroglyphs as a star-in-circle: 𓇽. The god Osiris was believed to be the lord of the underworld. He was the first mummy as depicted in the Osiris myth and he personified rebirth and life after death. The underworld was also the residence of various other gods along with Osiris.
Judgment scene from the Book of the Dead from the Papyrus of Hunefer. In the three scenes from the Book of the Dead (version from ~1275 BCE) the deceased Hunefer is taken into the judgment hall by the jackal-headed Anubis. The next scene is the weighing of his heart, with Ammit awaiting the result and Thoth recording. Next, the triumphant Hunefer, having passed the test, is presented by the falcon-headed Horus to Osiris, seated in his shrine with
A section of the Egyptian Book of the Dead that is written on papyrus, showing the Weighing of the Heart in the Duat, where Anubis can be seen on the far right. The scales are shown with the feather balance, and Ammit awaits hearts that she must devour. The presence of Osiris at the gateway to the paradise of Aaru dates the papyrus to a late tradition of the myth.
Af or Afu (commonly known as Afu-Ra), the ram-headed form of Ra when traveling the Duat on the subterrestrial Nile (the 12 hours of night and the underworld) on the Mesektet barque along with Sia (left and front of barque) and Heka (right and behind of barque), surrounded by the protective coiled serpent deity Mehen.
Papyrus of Ani: some of the 42 Judges of Maat are visible, seated and in small size
