From the Nu to the Duat: A Brief Introduction to Egyptian Mythology

Ancient Egypt has long captivated the minds of millions of people around the world. Egyptians believed they lived on blessed lands where the gods themselves had once walked the Earth. They had a rich, complex, and sophisticated culture that had a continuity over thousands of years – the likes of which we have never seen.

The people of ancient Egypt believed in many gods and mythologies that were vitally important to every aspect of their lives and deaths. From birth to death to the afterlife, maintaining the concept of Ma'at, or justice and stability, was a key focus in the lives of all Egyptians – from the peasants to the mighty pharaohs.

To the Egyptians, life and death were part of the same cycle of creation and rebirth that caused the cosmos to spring forth from the chaotic and primordial waters of the Nu. Death was seen as yet another journey that had many different tests to determine who was worthy of eternal bliss in the afterlife. How one followed Ma'at while on the earthly plane and how they fared in the different divisions of the underworld – as well as the final judgment before Osiris in the Hall of Ma'at – would determine their eternal fate.