Seeing that the Egyptians believed that the afterlife is a continuation of life on earth, the Book of the Dead only seem fitting as its a manual made from papyrus to assist the spirits or the pharaohs to achieve and maintain a full afterlife and protect them from the evils of the afterlife. I was also surprised to learn that they are real and well preserved. Fig 3-37 depicts the final judgment of the deceased (Gardner's pg. 80). In the image you can see the dog face men leading the spirits to a scale and weighting the heart against a feather to see if he is worthy to be one of the blessing
