ABOVE: A scene from the Book of the Dead owned by the 13th-century BC scribe Ani, depicting his heart being weighed RIGHT: The pharaoh Unas was buried in a chamber with more than 280 spells from the Pyramid Texts adorning the walls
GETTY IMAGES X3, SAHAR SALEEM X1
You’ve just died. That’s clearly not great news. And just as you’re thinking that things can’t get any worse, they do. For, no sooner have you breathed your last in the land of the living, than you’re cast into the land of the dead –a dark, fiery underworld guarded by snakes, crocodiles and half-human monstrosities, all attempting to prevent you from reaching the afterlife. Worse still, Apep, the serpent god of destruction, lurks in the shadows waiting to devour your soul. How, you ask yourself, can you possibly navigate your way to the Hall of Ma’at, the goddess of truth and justice – where you can reunite your soul and body and earn immortality – without being cast into eternal oblivion?