Cladking: "I have no particular reason to doubt the later translations but was not aware that this word had been cracked and am flabbergasted that as recently as 1953 a concept as seemingly integral to their religion was still unknown."


The meaning of 'Duat' was known then, but often translators prefer to keep to the Egyptian word when a suitable English word cannot be found that conveys the real meaning.

Like Mercer, Allen in his 2005 translation keeps to the Egyptian word 'Duat' (dwAt), but explains the meaning of 'Duat' in his glossary. Faulkner however, thought 'Netherworld' conveyed a fairly accurate meaning.

Strudwick in his 2005 book 'Texts From the Pyramid Age' sometimes prefers to keep to the AE word, and explains the meaning of the word in his introduction. For example, he explains the difficulty in translating 'imakhu' which means '(s)he who has been provided for' which as Strudwick comments, "hardly trips off the tongue".


Water was vital for building pyramids. The fine white limestone for the casing stones came from a quarry on the other side of the river. They were first hauled to the harbour from the quarry, and then floated across the river in barges, and then hauled up onto the plateau about 50 or so metres above the river. The huge granite stone blocks for Khufu's sarcophagus chamber came from Aswan - it took several weeks to float them downriver to Giza on barges, and then they were hauled up onto the plateau - some of these granite blocks weighed around 70 tons. A later depiction of a huge stone statue being hauled on a wooden sled by around 160 men with another 50 or so accompanying, show a man pouring a liquid in front of the sled presumably to allow the sled to slide more effectively.

CT