In the Old Kingdom only the pharaoh was believed to be able to enter the iifter-world. Minor royalty took to grouping their tombs around the king’s, hoping that the proximity could draw them, too, into the netherworld. By the time of the Middle Kingdom, the afterlife was open to all of the righteous, and Egyptians’ central concern became life after death. Earthly existence was but a short interlude to be endured until the afterlife brought eternal happiness and reward. The divine and secular worlds, however, were not strongly demarcated; the preservation of the earthly body through mummification was considered essential for the afterlife of the ka, or soul, and the tomb had to be supplied with all the comforts of home.

The Pyramid Texts were spells inscribed on the walls of the royal pyramids to ensure the success of the king or queen’s journey to their afterlife. As the underworld democratization took hold, these texts were adopted by more plebeian folk and inscribed on the sides of their coffins. The New Kingdom’s Book of the Dead, a collection of spells written on papyrus and put in sarcophagi, described not only how to get to the afterworld but also how to enjoy oneself once there.