The main text of this volume outlines the funerary rights of the ancient Egyptians. The funeral process for this ancient empire was long and drawn out but allowed for the soul, or Ka, to make its way to the land of the dead and back again to one day be resurrected. Also included are tablets that outline letters from various officials of missions and conquests of the Egyptians as well as stories of their gods and hymns and litanies outlining their religious beliefs.

A collection of ancient Egyptian magic spells and road maps to assist individuals through the underworld and into the afterlife.

Reissue of the legendary 3,500-year-old Papyrus of Ani, the most beautiful of the ornately illustrated Egyptian funerary scrolls ever discovered, restored in its original sequences of text and artwork.

The first-ever translation of the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead of Sobekmose—fully illustrated and explained by a leading Egyptologist, offering fascinating insights into one of the greatest civilizations of the ancient world The Book of the Dead of Sobekmose, in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum, is one of the most important surviving examples of ancient Egyptian Books of the Dead. Such “books”—actually papyrus scrolls—were composed of traditional funerary texts, including magic spells, which were thought to assist the deceased on their journeys into the afterlife. The ancient Egyptians believed in an underworld fraught with dangers that needed to be carefully navigated, from the familiar, such as snakes and scorpions, to the extraordinary: lakes of fire to cross, animal-headed demons to pass, and the ritual Weighing of the Heart, whose outcome determined whether or not the deceased would be born again into the afterlife for eternity. Virtually all of the existing published translations of material from the Book of the Dead corpus are compilations of various texts drawn from a number of sources, and many translations are available only in excerpt form. This publication is the first to offer a continuous English translation of a single, extensive, major text from beginning to end in the order in which it was composed. This new translation not only represents a great step forward in the study of these texts but also grants modern readers a direct encounter with what can seem a remote and alien, though no less fascinating, civilization.

The Egyptians created a world of supernatural forces so vivid, powerful and inescapable that controlling one's destiny within it was a constant preoccupation. In life, supernatural forces manifested themselves through misfortune and illness,and after death were faced for eternity in the Otherworld, along with the divine gods who controlled the universe. The Book of the Dead empowered the reader to overcome the dangers lurking in the Otherworld and to become one with the gods who governed. Barry Kemp selects a number of spells to explore who and what the Egyptians feared and the kind of assistance that the Book offered them, revealing a relationship between the human individual and the divine quite unlike that found in the major faiths of the modern world.

Discover how the ancient Egyptians controlled their immortal destiny! This book, edited by Foy Scalf, explores what the Book of the Dead was believed to do, how it worked, how it was made, and what happened to it.

The Egyptian "Book of Life, " which is mistakenly translated as the "Book of the Dead, " is the only living record of the twofold mystery--of life and death. Dr. Seleem maintains that this tradition is not dead and irrelevant but vital and alive to this day. He translates ancient Egyptian texts here, lavishly illustrated including facsimile plates from the original papyrus books, and colorful hieroglyphics.

'Man perishes; his corpse turns to dust; all his relatives pass away. But writings make him remembered' In ancient Egypt, words had magical power. Inscribed on tombs and temple walls, coffins and statues, or inked onto papyri, hieroglyphs give us a unique insight into the life of the Egyptian mind. Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson has freshly translated a rich and diverse range of ancient Egyptian writings into modern English, including tales of shipwreck and wonder, obelisk inscriptions, mortuary spells, funeral hymns, songs, satires and advice on life from a pharaoh to his son. Spanning over two millennia, this is the essential guide to a complex, sophisticated culture. Translated with an Introduction by Toby Wilkinson