Right panel of a false door naming the owner of the tomb: the ‘Priest of Horus- userib, priest of Useremnebtj, overseer of the Wab-Priests, Kajduau (my Ka shall be blessed)’.

Only the elite of Egyptian society had the means to provide for the afterlife, and built tombs with all the necessary equipment, thus establishing and maintanning a mortuary cult. In general, Old Kingdom tombs consist of two parts: a substructure below ground level for the burial chamber and a super- structure, the Mastaba above the burial place, the monument for the deceased.

A false door is an artistic representation of a door that does not function like a real door. It is usually carved from a single block of stone or plank of wood. The ancient Egyptians believed that the false door was a threshold between the worlds of the living and the dead, through which a deity or the Ka of the deceased could enter or exit. Most false doors are found on the west wall of a funerary chapel or offering chamber because the Ancient Egyptians associa- ted the west with the land of the dead.