Book of Gates
The underworld is a fortified territory divided by twelve gates, each guarded and each requiring the correct password, making safe passage a matter of security clearance as much as piety.
- the underworld organized around twelve guarded gates
- correct names required as a form of passage
- an early full scene of the heart weighed against Maat
- structurally parallel to, and roughly contemporary with, the Amduat
A New Kingdom royal netherworld book, first attested in full in the tomb of Horemheb, structurally similar to the Amduat but organized around twelve gates rather than twelve hours, each defended by a serpent guardian whose name must be spoken correctly to pass. It includes a fully developed scene of the weighing of the heart against Maat, an image that would become central to the Book of the Dead's judgment scene, and it remained reserved for royal tombs throughout the New Kingdom.
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