The Amduat: The ancient Egyptian book of the underworld
Imi dw3t, means the book of what is in the Duat "Netherworld". It also means the book of the hidden chamber. It was an important funerary text of the New Kingdom of Egypt. It tells the journey of the sun god Re through the Netherworld. It is often believed that the king takes the same journey and becomes one with Re in eternal life. The Amduat is divided into twelve hours according to the twelve hours of the night: it begins when the sun sets in the west and rises again in the east. The boat of the sun god faces many obstacles and the journey becomes a drama. The earliest complete copies of the Amduat are retrieved from the tomb of Thutmose the Third. The hours of the Amduat The first hour: the sun god enters into the Netherworld "the gate which swallows all" represented as ram-headed Ba. It describes the Netherworld's inhabitants and there's a list of 741 deities in the burial chamber. The second and third hour: it describes the fertile farmlands of the...
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