The complex religious beliefs of the New Kingdom
pharaohs included a conviction that after death they would become one
with both Osiris, the god of the underworld, and the great sun god Re.
But first, the pharaoh expected to face many perils in the underworld.
One
of these guides, or books of the underworld, was the Amduat. It
described the perilous journey that the sun god Re made in his solar
boat through the underworld each night. The pharaoh believed that after
his burial to the west of Thebes, where the sun was seen to set, he
would unite with the sun god and then be reborn as one with Re in the
eastern sky at dawn.
Illustration
from the Litany of Re, a religious text, in the tomb of Tuthmosis III.
This work shows the many different forms of the sun god Re and
celebrates his union with the dead pharaoh.
Scene
from the Amduat (meaning 'that which is in the underworld') in the tomb
of Tuthmosis III, one of the earliest in the Valley of the Kings.
Scene
from the Amduat in the tomb of Ramesses III. The sun god Re in
ram-headed form is accompanied by other gods in his solar boat as he
traverses the underworld at night and confronts its dangers.
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