Rostau- Egyptian LocationLocation · Landmark"Gateway to the Underworld"

Where the Dead Enter

Rostau, "mouth of the passages," is the threshold between the living and the dead. The name belonged to the Giza necropolis, where the pyramids of the desert plateau marked the entrance to the Duat. The Sphinx faced east toward the rising sun as sentinel at the boundary. Some texts described secret passages beneath it, hidden tunnels through which the dead could pass into the realm below. The living dwelt in the Nile Valley with its fertile fields and flowing water; the dead rested on the desert plateau above. Rostau was where the crossing happened.

The Knowledge Required

Passing through Rostau required knowledge. The gateway had guardians who demanded passwords and the right responses to their challenges. The soul that arrived unprepared could not enter. The soul that could not enter was trapped between worlds, unable to reach judgment before Osiris, unable to return to life.

The Book of the Dead and the Coffin Texts equipped the deceased with the names of gatekeepers and the words that would open Rostau's passages. Tomb paintings showed the way. Funerary priests recited the spells. Beyond Rostau lay the weighing of the heart and the Field of Reeds, but Rostau came first, and without passing through it nothing else was possible.