Kenn Goin - Mummies

Pharaoh was what kings in Ancient Egypt were called.

Any dead body that still has skin on it is called a mummy.

After death, most bodies rot, dry out, and turn to dust.

Thousands of years ago, in the desert land of Egypt, great temples were built by order of the Pharaohs mansions for the gods that ruled the land of the living and the land of the dead. And the priests of these gods helped transform millions of bodies into mummies!

mummy houses

In Egypt, the Pharaohs were worshipped as if they were gods themselves. When they passed by, people dropped to their knees and kissed the ground. Its little wonder that some of the greatest tombs ever built to house mummies were created for the Pharaohs.

Mummy Land

Why Mummify?

The priests wanted to make sure the bodies looked in death as they had in life.

Ancient Egyptians believed that at the moment of death, two spirits that give human beings life (Ka) and soul (Ba) leave the body. But they reenter it after mummification, so that the person can live again in the land of the dead. Hence, it was very important for the spirits to be able to recognize their body.

The mummy of the Pharaoh Khufu was placed in what is called the Great Pyramid. It is the largest stone structure in the world, consisting of 2,300,000 stone blocks, each weighing several tons! Thats one big tombstone!

We know all of this because scientists found mysterious writings, call hieroglyphs, on the walls and objects inside tombs. When they learned to read the symbols, they began to understand why mummies were created.

Making Mummies

The very first mummies were dried in the hot desert sand. An oval grave was dug and the body was placed inside it with its head turned toward the west, facing the setting sun. Objects that the Egyptians believed would be needed in the next life were buried with it, and then the body was covered with sand, which mummified it naturally.

Mummification:

The First Days

As the centuries passed, the embalming became much more elaborate, taking days to turn a body into a mummy.

The brain was pulled out through the nose with a special instrument made for that purpose.

Embalmers are what the workers who created the mummies are called.

First, most of the internal organs except for the heart and kidneys were removed, embalmed, and put in special containers called canopic jars. Then, the whole body was covered with oil and spices.

Next, the corpse was caked with natron a natural kind of salt that absorbs all moisture as it kills the bacteria that rot flesh. The natron was left on for about days.

Each finger and toe was wrapped separately.

The Last Days

When the salt was washed off, the body was rubbed with a mixture of oils, wax, and gum to keep the skin from cracking. Tree resin was then spread over the corpse to keep air away from the skin for the same reasons that the dentist coats your teeth to prevent tooth decay.

Because corpses shrivel over time, the mummys embalmers stuffed the body with sand, sawdust, and wads of cloth so that it would keep its shape.

Then the mummy was tightly wrapped in layers of linen bandages. Each layer was brushed with resin to make the bandages stick together.

Is that your mummy, honey?

The Egyptian Book of the Dead was a book of magic spells to help the dead on their difficult journey to a new life.

A mask of the persons face was placed over the head, so the spirits would recognize the person when they returned... even though the head and body were wrapped in bandages.

BoO! The bodies were often buried with magic charms to ward off evil. Sometimes, the charms were wrapped inside the linen bandages.

Finally, the body was laid in its case, which was often made in the shape of the mummy. Sometimes there were inner and outer cases heavily decorated with gold and hieroglyphs. Inside the tomb, the pharaohs coffin was placed inside a very heavy stone box called a sarcophagus.

Grave Robbers!

But were the mummies safe? No! Robbers looted most of the large tombs, such as the pyramids, in the years following their inhabitants death. The thieves even unwrapped the mummies looking for the gold and gems used as magic charms.

Around 1000 BC, the priests decided to gather up all the royal mummies and hide them. This hiding place was not discovered until the 1870s almost 3,000 years later!

Thats why the pharaohs cemetery was eventually moved from Giza, where the Pyramids are, to the Valley of the Kings, a deserted place near the town of Thebes. The tombs in this valley were cut deep into the desert rock and unmarked. Even so, they were robbed.