What is the Book of Death? Follow Taylor's (Video) confession

John Taylor, the British Museum

I'm the curator of the travel exhibition through later life: Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. The exhibition is the result of years of work behind scenes in planning, preparation and research. It is exciting to be able to focus on these special documents and have the rare opportunity to look through such diversity.

The Book of the Dead is a modern term for a collection of magic that the Egyptians used to help them enter into the afterlife. They imagined the afterlife as a kind of trip that had to be made to go to heaven but it was a very dangerous trip so it would need a magical aid along the way.

The Book of the Dead is not a final text that is not like the Bible, it is not a collection of doctrine, a statement of faith, or something like that is a practical guide for the world to come with magic to help you travel.

The book is usually a roll of papyrus with lots of magic written on it in the format of hieroglyphic writing. This book usually contains beautiful illustrations. It was very expensive, so only people with high status could own it.

Some of the magic is to make sure you can control your body after death. The ancient Egyptians believed that one person was made up of different elements - the body, the soul, the heart, all were one person's incarnations and feared that these elements would be distributed when they died.

The worst thing that can happen is what's called the second death. That means you've been killed and you can't have an afterlife.

It was a world of great fear that they believed were going, and the Book of the Dead offered instructions for protection on this journey./Periscopi/