by Linda Falk

Created on: February 04, 2009

To the ancient Egyptians death was not the end, but rather the transition in to a new life. The Egyptians believed that the soul was made up of five parts and that after death the ka (life force) would leave the body and join the ba (the personality) to reunite with the akh (essentially a ghost). The akh would then live on in the afterlife for ever. In order for the ba and ka to find the akh the physical body of a dead needed to be as well preserved as possible. It was this belief that, through centuries of practicing, made the Egyptians such masters in the art of mummification. Every part of the body and the intestines was preserved but while the other organs where taken out and preserved in separate urns the heart was left in its place since it was considered to be the home of the soul.

The Egyptians believed that the deceased would continue his or her way of living in the afterlife much as in life. It was really only question of a transition into alternate, better but much similar, world. Therefore clothes, favourite belongings and even tools of trade where sent with the body into th grave.

After death the soul was taken to the great halls of the underworld (Duat) to be judged by the god Anubis. Here the heart of the deceased, that was considered to hold in it a kind of recording of the persons morality, was weighted against a feather from the goddess Ma'at (goddess of truth and justice). The hearts that weighed in to heavy would be eaten by the demon Ammit and it's owner would be doomed to stay in the Duat for ever. A heart that was not weighed down with guilt and sins would be lighter than the feather and so pass the test of admittance and the soul would be taken by the god of afterlife, Osiris, to Aaru. But even for those with a light heart the journey to Aaru, the Egyptian "paradise", was long and hard. Before entering, the soul of the dead would also have to pass a number of great gates (some tradition speaks of 15 gates, others of 21) all guarded by evil demons. Aaru was said to be situated in the east, where the sun would rise and it was described as eternal reed fields of reed, a bounty full land where the soul could live well for eternity.

The myths and traditions surrounding death where many and highly complex. From ancient funerary texts such as the "book of dead", meant as a kind of instruction book to guide the soul of the deceased through the underworld and into Aaru, we know a lot about the ancient Egyptians view of what would happen to the soul after death.

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