Du'at
/ˈduː.ɑːt/noun
In ancient Egyptian religion, the Du'at was the realm of the dead and the dangerous celestial underworld.
Did you know?Egyptian funerary texts describe the Du'at not as a simple underground hell, but as a vast liminal cosmos where the sun god Ra fought enemies and renewed the world each night.
Etymological Timeline
2nd Millennium BCE
Ancient Egyptian
dwꜣt
“The otherworld or realm through which the dead—and the sun god—passed.”
New Kingdom, c. 1550–1070 BCE
Egyptian
dwꜣt
“A dangerous cosmic region mapped in funerary texts such as the Amduat and the Book of Gates.”
Ptolemaic Period, 305–30 BCE
Egyptian
dwꜣt
“The underworld associated with Osiris, judgment, divine beings, and the nightly journey of the sun.”
19th–20th Century
Egyptology
Duat
“Scholarly transliteration of the Egyptian term, with vocalization reconstructed approximately rather than directly recorded.”
Modern English
English
Duat
“The ancient Egyptian underworld or afterlife realm.”