- False Door -

As the name already suggests, a false door is an imitation door usually found in tombs and funerary chapels. The oldest known occurrences of this type of decoration are dated to the 3rd Dynasty. Its typical form evolved out of the so-called palace façade used for mastabas from the 1st Dynasty on.

A false door could be carved in stone or wood, or simply be painted on a flat surface.

Its central part is a high and narrow recessed panel, representing the actual doorway. It is usually topped by a semi-cylinder, a rendering of a reed mat that was used to close the passage of real doors. Despite the presence of this imitation mat, it is possible that a line runs the height of the recessed panel representing the doorway, effectively splitting it into two door panels. When there are no doors, the doorway can hold a vertical line of hieroglyphs.

The doors and reed mat are set in a rectangular frame. This is sometimes surmounted by a rectangular panel holding the representation of a person sitting at an offering table. This whole can again be set in a rectangular frame. People can be represented on the lower parts of the false door decoration, facing in, as if they were progressing towards the door.

Facing west, false doors served as an imaginary passage for the deceased between the world of the living and the world of the dead. The often lavish inscriptions on the false door refer to the countless offerings that the deceased is about to receive. An elaborate false door can be seen in the 6th Dynasty mastaba of Mereruka at Saqqara, where a more than life-size statue of the deceased is placed before it as if it were stepping out of the niche.

This Old Kingdom false door of Sheshi, now at the Louvre museum, is a typical example of the structure of false doors.