The British Egyptologist E. A. Wallis Budge, compiled in his book Egyptian Heaven and Hell, in 1905, very detailed detailed account of Egypt’s otherworldly areas based on the various sources available.
Accordingly, Duat is divided into 12 areas, one for each night hour. A fairly detailed description of this world is preserved in the Book of Aum-Taut. When the sun set in the West, it had to travel through Duat in order to rise again in the East. The most sincere wish of every pious Egyptian was to cross the path from this world to another world like the Sun.
Armed with magic words, amulets and talismans and convinced that their lives were right, their souls would enter the Sun Ship and set off. The souls of the dead begin their journey by boat in the first area called Net-Ra.
Another area is Urnes where Isis and Nephtis appear.
The journey through Duat continues in the third part, Net-Neb-Ua-Kheper-Aut.
The fourth area of Ankhet-Kheper is characterized by the fact that there the deceased, while passing through the kingdom of Seker, catches up with the curse of the dead.
In the fifth district, Ament, the deceased is in the company of seven gods.
While passing through the sixth area, Metchet-Mu-Nebt-Tuat, the deceased encounters the five-headed snake Ash-Hrau.
In the seventh area, Thepthet-Asar, the traveler is faced with a new temptation: whoever correctly utters the magic words of Isis, will become one of those in the boat Ra, otherwise he or she will not be able to resist the serpent Nehra-Hra.
The eighth area is characterized by “circles of secret gods”; if the magic words of the snake Mehen are uttered as a rule, the gods will show the traveler where the gates of the city of Tebat-Neteru-S are, after which this part of the Duat was named are located.
In the ninth part of Best-Aru-Ankhet-Kheper, a group of divine sailors joins the traveler.
The voyage continues in a calmer course through the tenth Metet-Qa-Utchebu.
In the eleventh Re-En-Qerert-Apt-Khatu the deceased continues his journey guided by the star Pestet towards the eastern horizon which is gradually diverging and from where the surface of the earth is illuminated.
In the twelfth area of Then-Neteru, the traveler takes a position on the Eastern horizon, the god Shu accepts him and he disembarks on the land of the East and thus happily ends his journey on the Duat.
Some parts of the Duat were full of dangers, lakes of fire, executioners, monsters in human and animal forms and various evil spirits. Anubis is a guide (psychopomp) on the way to help the deceased. The road leads through the underground Thebes, Abydos, Heracleopolis, Memphis and Sais. The gods who rule the areas that the traveler passes through can be helpful, but despite that, the deceased could easily wander off there.
According to an ancient record: “If you do not take a specific path to the appropriate sky, you will not get there, but to a false sky.” The Duat is also described in an ancient Egyptian text from the 11th and 12th Dynasties, the Book of Twice, which was found on the surface of a sarcophagus. The text talks about the paths that a traveler must take, mentions the names of places where problems and obstacles can await him, and supplies him with magical words that he should say when he is in danger. The road to the land of blessed souls ruled by Osiris led over land and sea. The book provides information on how to go one way or the other, with illustrations of individual parts of the Duat, streams and canals that the deceased must cross. A map of the Island of the Blessed is also drawn, a terrible Land of boiling water and blazing fires in which the bodies and souls of the wicked are destroyed.
All in all, many things can be concluded from this text, but let me just emphasize the importance of magical formulae in Egyptian rituals and ceremonies. Their importance only gets bigger in the afterlife, so it is very important to remember them well while you are alive. If not possible to remember them all, they would be written inside or on the surface of the coffin. So, the one who passed away had a chance to look them up in the need while on the road through Duat.
