Francis

Again I am not an Egyptologist and perhaps overly rely on the authorities in
the field.

The "Instruction for King Merikere" includes, at the end, a brief discussion
of what the author thought of as life after death.  Erman's translation,
"The soul goeth to the place which it knoweth, and strayeth not from its
paths of yesterday.  (Wherefore) make fair thine house of the West, and
stately thy place in the necropolis, even as one that is just, as one that
hath done right." (Page 83, "Ancient Egyptian Poetry and Prose")  Making
fair his "House of the West" and "place in the necropolis" refer to physical
tomb construction.

Note that the modern concept of "Paradise" is not what was intended in the
"Instruction" and was not what the Ancient Egyptian believed for an
afterlife.  Their concept of the afterlife was not the purified concept of a
"Paradise".  The ancient Egyptian believed that in the afterlife he
continued to live a very ordinary life under different circumstances.  It
was sort of a parallel but overlapping universe concept.  Conflictingly this
afterlife took place in the sky, on earth in a tomb, and underground.  Also
to add to our confusion the term "underground" can, but not always,  refer
to a place in the sky.  The ancient Egyptian did not seem concerned about
this confusion.

Here are two major authoritative texts on Egyptian Religion:
"Egyptian Religion" by Siegfried Morenz,
more recently,
"Ancient Egyptian Religion" by Stephen Quirke,
 and also a collection of essays,
"Religion in Ancient Egypt" edited by Byron E. Shafer.

Rick Seddon
McIntosh. NM