Chapter 7 (part 4)

On the other hand, the Tuat possessed the characteristics of all these names, for it was an "unseen" place, and it contained abysmal depths of darkness, and there were pits of fire in it wherein the damned, i.e., the enemies of Osiris and Ra, were consumed, and certain parts of it were the homes of monsters in various shapes and forms which lived upon the unfortunate creatures whom they were able to destroy. On the whole, the word Tuat may be best rendered by "The Other World," 1 or "Underworld," always provided that it be clearly understood that the Egyptians never believed it to be under the earth. In inventing a situation for the Tuat the Egyptians appear to have believed that the whole of the habitable world, that is to say, Egypt, was surrounded by a chain of mountains lofty and impassable, just like the Jebel Kaf 2 of Muhammadan writers; from one hole in this mountain the sun rose, and in another he set. Outside this chain of mountains, but presumably quite close to them, was the region of the Tuat; it ran parallel with p. 89 the mountains, and was on the plane either of the land of Egypt or of the sky above it. On the outside of the Tuat was a chain of mountains also, similar to that which encompassed the earth, and so we may say that the Tuat had the shape of a valley; and from the fact that it began near the place where the sun set, and ended near the place where he rose, it is permissible to say that the Tuat was nearly circular in form. That this is the view taken by the Egyptians themselves is proved by the scene which is reproduced in the BOOK OF GATES (page 303). Here we have the body of Osiris bent round in a circle, and the hieroglyphics enclosed within it declare that it is the Tuat. With the identification of Osiris with the Tuat we need not deal here, but it is important for our purpose to note that in the time of Seti I. the Egyptians assigned a circular form to the Tuat. The view put forward by Signor Lanzone to the effect that the Tuat was the place comprised between the arms of the god Shu and the body of the sky-goddess Nut, whom, according to the old legend, he raised up from the embrace of her husband the Earth-god Seb, so forming the earth and the sky, thus appears to be untenable. 1 Now as the Tuat was situated on the other side of the mountains which separated it from Egypt, and from the sun, moon, and stars which lighted the skies of that country, it follows that it must have been a region which was shrouded in the gloom and darkness of night, p. 90 and a place of fear and horror. At each end of the Tuat was a space which was neither wholly darkness nor wholly light, the western end being partially lighted by the setting sun, and the eastern end by the rising sun. From the pictures in the BOOK AM-TUAT and the BOOK OF GATES we learn that a river flowed through the Tuat, much as the Nile flowed through Egypt, and we see that there were inhabitants on each of its banks, just as there were human beings on each side of the Nile. At one place the river of the Tuat joined the great celestial waters which were supposed to form the source of the earthly Nile. How, or when, or where the belief arose it is impossible to say, but it seems that at a very early period the inhabitants of Egypt thought that the souls of the dead when they departed from this world made their way into the Tuat, and took up their abode there, and long before the Dynastic Period the Tuat was regarded throughout Egypt as the kingdom of the dead.