Aalu, Fields of

In the legend of the “Destruction of Mankind,” found in the tomb of Seti I and elsewhere, we learn how that Ra, tired of ruling disobedient people on earth, retired to the sky. “His desire was fulfilled, and having reached the upper regions, he inspected the territory which he had there chosen for his own, declared his purpose of gathering many men about him in it, and created for their future accommodation the various divisions of the heavenly world. His majesty spake: 'Let there be set a great field,' and there appeared the Field of Rest; 'I will gather plants in it,' and there appeared the Field of Aaru...” (Erman). It was to this part of the divine world that souls made their way on the death of the body. The “Book of the Dead” speaks of it as “the field which produced the divine harvests,” which the ble ed departed spent their time in harvesting. The barley here grew to seven cubits in height. The fields of Aalu were surrounded by a wall of iron, broken by several doors, and traversed by a river; the ways which led to it were mysterious. The idea has been compared to the Greek Elysian fields.