The Pyramid Texts
The oldest large body of religious writing from Egypt, carved inside a king's pyramid.
Also: Pyramid Texts · PT · Unas pyramid texts · Old Kingdom funerary texts
The Pyramid Texts are the earliest large body of religious writing from Egypt: spells carved on the inner walls of royal pyramids at the end of the Old Kingdom to help the dead king rise to join the gods and the stars. They are concerned above all with the king's transformation and ascent. Later, their ideas filtered down into the Coffin Texts and Book of the Dead used by non-royals.
In short
The oldest substantial corpus of Egyptian religious literature — funerary and ritual spells inscribed inside Old Kingdom royal pyramids to secure the dead king's ascent to the gods and eternal life.
Where it’s found
The Pyramid Texts (pyramid of Unas, end of Dyn. 5, c. 2350 BCE)
Read it in the Egyptian texts
The passages in our corpus where this idea is discussed — each opens in our reader with the Egyptian transliteration and the English translation side by side.
How the idea developed across Egypt
First attested in the pyramid of Unas at the end of Dynasty 5 (c. 2350 BCE, soft date) and used through Dynasty 6 and the early First Intermediate Period for kings and some queens; ancestral to the Coffin Texts (Middle Kingdom) and ultimately the Book of the Dead.
The earliest large body of religious writing FROM EGYPT — not 'the oldest religious book in the world' (Mesopotamian religious texts are older, and the site has a Mesopotamian stream). Some individual spells may be older than their first inscription; distinguish the date of composition from the date of the inscribed copy. Use Allen / Faulkner, not Budge.