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The Journey Through the Duat
Twelve hours of night, twelve gates, and one serpent standing between the sun and the dawn.
Egyptians imagined the underworld, the Duat, as a vast region the sun god traversed each night in twelve hours, and into which the dead also entered. New Kingdom 'Netherworld Books' — the Amduat, the Book of Gates, and others — chart this nightly journey in detail: its gates and guardians, its blessed and damned, and the climactic battle against the serpent Apophis before sunrise. These were inscribed first in royal tombs to secure the king's rebirth with the sun.
Key passages(1)
The Pyramid Texts · 2350 BCE
High