Editing Duat (section)

=== Geography ===
To connect this realm to the material world, burial chambers formed touching-points between the mundane world and the ''Duat''.<ref name="Pinch-1994-Magic" /> As such, the west bank of the [[Nile]] was associated with the dead and [[Ancient Egyptian funerary practices|funeral barges]] would mimic the sun god Ra's journey through the sky during the day.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Kandil |first=Hoda Abd allah |year=2012 |title=The Function and Symbolism of the Akh in Ancient Egypt |url=https://platform.almanhal.com/Details/article/14853 |journal=Faculty of Arts Journal |publisher=Mansoura University : Faculty of Arts |publication-date=2012 |volume=87 |issue=49 P2 |pages=1–14 |via=Al Manhal Platform}}</ref> To further this connection, the ''Duat'' is often described as having many realistic features such as rivers, islands, fields, paths, and lakes. Although, texts also describe fantastic lakes of fire, walls of iron, and trees of turquoise.<ref name="Taylor-2010-BkotDd" /> These lands are described as being dark and were partitioned with a series of gates, and mostly identified as Shetit, a dangerous land translated as 'The Beyond'.<ref name=":1" /> Descriptions of the ''Duat'' often follow this same theme with titles such as 'The Hidden Place', described as a region where mortals and the divine are absent;<ref name=":1" /> and 'Road of the Secret Things of Re-stau', a road that Ra passes in his nightly journey.<ref name=":2" />

[[File:BD Field of Hotep.jpg|thumb|416x416px|''A'aru'', 'The Field of Reeds' from the Papyrus of Ani]]
Important locations pertaining to the deceased would be 'The Hall of Truth', often depicted alongside the '[[Weighing of the Heart]]' ritual in ''Books of the Dead'' and mentioned in the sixth hour of Ra's journey.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":2" /> If the dead are found virtuous, they will be permitted to dwell  in [[Aaru|''A'aru'']], also known as 'The Field of Reeds'.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |last=Mark |first=Joshua J. |title=Field of Reeds (Aaru) |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Field_of_Reeds/ |access-date=2025-03-17 |website=World History Encyclopedia |language=en}}</ref> It is described as a paradise where the dead could live their former life with their loved ones without pain or suffering. Harvest of crops is often featured in depictions of ''A'aru'' as it was believed that that the harvests were never poor and the land in eternal Spring.<ref name=":5" />