"The idea that the dead had to make a journey to the otherworld,
to which they belonged, finds expression in many religions. The
oldest evidence occurs in the Egyptian Pyramid Texts (c. 2375-c.
2200 BC). The journey is conceived under various images. The dead
pharaoh flies up to heaven to join the sun-god Re, in his solar
boat, on his unceasing voyage across the sky, or he joins the
circumpolar stars, known as the "Imperishable Ones," or he ascends
a ladder to join the gods in heaven." - Encyclopaedia Britannica
"The gods who are in the sky are brought to you, the gods who
are on earth assemble for you, they place their hands under you,
they make a ladder for you that you may ascend on it into the
sky, the doors of the sky are thrown open to you, the doors of
the starry firmament are thrown open for you." - Pyramid Texts,
Utterance 572
"Later Egyptian funerary texts depict the way to the next world
as beset by awful perils: fearsome monsters, lakes of fire, gates
that cannot be passed except by the use of magical formulas, and
a sinister ferryman whose evil intent must be thwarted by magic."
- Encyclopaedia Britannica
According to Mesopotamian literature, "below the earth, in the
realm of Nergal, dwelt spirits and defeated gods. The ritual texts
depicted this region as dark, inhabited by beings clothed with
wings. It was a land from which there was no return, except perhaps
for assassinated or wronged persons who might come back briefly
to haunt their malefactors. It was a dusty place, where the ghosts
lived on dusky air and mud. Only a few privileged people could
find water or a place to sleep." - Ninian Smart, The Religious
Experience of Mankind
"The Egyptian conception of the Underworld was that it was a nightmarish
place - dark, dismal, unsafe, peopled with monsters, genii and
all kinds of carnivorous animal. The Coffin Texts provide spells
for escaping from such creatures; and spells for the prevention
of suffering from evils such as walking upside down or eating
excrement." - Barbara Watterson, The Gods of Ancient Egypt
"Tuat [or the zone of twilight or heaven by night] is the name
which the Egyptians gave in primitive times to the region to which
the dead departed after they had left this earth, and the word
has been translated by 'Other World'....It was 'unseen', and dark
and gloomy, and there were pits of fire in it, and it formed the
home of hellish monsters, and of the damned."
"The early Egyptians thought that Egypt was the world, and that
it was surrounded by a chain of lofty mountains, like the Gele
Kaf of the Arabs, which was pierced in two places, one in the
east and the other in the west. In the evening the sun passed
through the western hole, and traveling, not under the earth,
but on the same plane and outside the chain of mountains it came
round to the eastern hole in the mountains, through which it entered
to begin the new day above the earth. Outside the chain of mountains,
but quite close to them, was situated the Tuat, and it ran parallel
with them. On the outer side of the Tuat was another chain of
mountains which surrounded Egypt, and a river ran between them.
We may say, then that the Tuat closely resembled that part of
the Valley of the Nile which constitutes Egypt, and that it was
to all intents and purposes circular in form. Now as the Tuat
lay on the other side of the chain of mountains which surrounded
Egypt, and was therefore deprived of the light of the sun and
moon which illumined its skies, it was shrouded in the gloom and
darkness of night..."
"The part of the Tuat that was close to Egypt was a terrible place,
which much resembled the African 'bush'. Parts of it were desert,
and parts of it were forest, and parts of it were 'scrub' land,
and there were no 'roads' through any part of it. Tracks there
were, just as there are in the forests of the Sudan, but it was
hopeless for the disembodied soul to attempt to find its way by
means of them, unless guided by some friendly being who knew the
'ways' of that awful region. Everywhere there was thick darkness.
All the region of the Tuat was inhabited, but the beings who dwelt
there were hostile to all new-comers, and they could only be placated
by gifts, or made subservient to the souls of the dead on their
way to the kingdom of Osiris, by the use of spells, or words of
power. They way was bared too, by frightful monsters which lived
on the souls of the dead, and at one place or another the deceased
was obliged to cross streams which were fed by the river in the
Tuat, and even the river itself. In one part of this terrible
region was situated a district called 'Sekhet Hetepet, i.e., the
'Field of Offerings', or the Elysian Fields, and within this was
a sub-district called 'Sekhet Aaru', i.e., the 'Field of Reeds';
in the later lived the god Osiris and his court. In primitive
times his kingdom was very small, but gradually it grew, and at
length absorbed the whole of the Tuat. He ruled the inhabitants
thereof much as an earthly king ruled men, and from first to last
there seem to have bee in his kingdom nobles, chiefs, and serfs,
just as there were in Egypt."
The deceased might also attempt to reach the Kingdom of Osiris
by water. "The Egyptians thought that the Nile which flowed through
Egypt was connected with the river in the Tuat, but to reach the
latter the deceased would have to pass through the two holes in
the First Cataract from which the Nile rose, and then he would
have to sail over streams of fire and boiling water before he
arrived in post. The banks of these streams were filled with hostile
beings which sought to bar his progress, and lucky indeed was
that soul which triumphed over all obstacles, and reached the
City of God." - E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Dead