In ancient Egyptian funerary belief, what was the Book of Two Ways?
Answer
A coffin map of the afterlife
The Book of Two Ways was a coffin map of the ancient Egyptian afterlife.
This funerary composition appears mainly on the bottoms of Middle Kingdom coffins, especially those associated with the region of el-Bersheh. It presents a diagram of the underworld, showing two routes that the deceased could follow: one by land and one by water. The paths are surrounded by obstacles, gates, fiery regions, and protective magical texts.
The composition belongs to the Coffin Texts tradition, which developed after the Pyramid Texts and expanded access to funerary knowledge beyond kings. Its maps were not geographical charts in the modern sense. They were ritual diagrams intended to help a dead person navigate dangerous supernatural regions.
The title can be misleading because the work is not simply a narrative book. Its distinctive feature is the combination of text and a visual route map, making it one of the earliest known depictions of an afterlife landscape.