Duat

The Duat is the Egyptian underworld — the hidden realm through which the sun-god Ra sails each night and through which the dead must journey. Far from a mere abode of the dead, it was a vast and perilous landscape of gates, caverns, fiery lakes, and demonic guardians, mapped in elaborate funerary 'guidebooks' for the soul.

There the dead faced the weighing of the heart before Osiris, king of the Duat, and the threat of the chaos-serpent Apophis. Passing safely through, the blessed spirit emerged reborn with the rising sun — for the journey of the dead and the nightly rebirth of the sun were, to the Egyptians, one and the same mystery.