Mummies:
Believe it or not, Egypt was not the only county to use mummies. Other countries such as Greece, Japan, and the Inca Empire all used mummies. They did not all use mummies for the same reason, but most countries used them for the afterlife. Egypt is one of them. There are some Egyptian mummies that are over 1000 years old and they are still there today.
A mummy is a dead body that has been preserved by human or nature. The reason why mummies still have not decayed after all these years is because they are preserve dryly. The first mummies were buried under sand in a crouched position so that their body took up the least space possible, which made it drier. The dinosaurs are also mummies. They were dead bodies preserved by nature accidentally. Royal kings and Queens were mummified to honor them and so that their spirits could live on. The kings were preserved in the Valley of the Kings and the Queens were preserved in the valley of Queens.
Back in Egypt a long, long time ago, people living there thought that somehow, even though the body is dead, their spirits may continue to live on. So when someone dies, the family members would bury the person under the sand in a crouched position so that the body would decay slower. Then, they would put some food in the tombs so that the spirit could eat. They would also put the dead person's favorite stuffs so that the person's spirit could play with it. The family members would put some stones on top of the place where the mummy was buried to mark the spot. They would also make it hard for Jackals and other animals to dig it up.
Some years later, people made the mummies more fancy. They would only do it for the kings and queens. They would also do it for the rich people and nobles.
First, they would take the organs and heart and preserve it somewhere else. Then, they would take the brain and throw it out. The Egyptians thought that the brain would be useless in the afterlife. They would wrap bandages around the mummy and the put the mummy in a tomb. They would sometimes put valuable items in the tomb so that the mummy would look fancy in the afterlife.
Ever since the first mummy, Egyptians have been doing it. Even now today, some Egyptians still bury mummies so that their spirits may live on.
Tombs:
Tombs where used to put the mummies in. Some tombs were put in a pyramid, which I will talk about next. Some tombs have fancy decorations on the outside such as gold, silver, etc… In the next paragraph, I will tell you a lot about tombs.
When years passed by, stones where not suitable for burying. Then, from the first dynasty, kings were to be buried under beneath a structure called mastaba. The word “mastaba” is Arabic for bench. In a way, the mastaba resembled as a bench. The mastaba was a rectangular mud-brick sized tomb.
Then, as years went by, Egyptians thought that mastabas were not good enough for kings. Imhotep, the prime minister of the king Zoser, tried something new. He made the mastabas bigger and added five more mastabas to it. That structure was known as the first step pyramid.
The step pyramid was two hundred feet in height. The inside was nearly all solid stone. It had a deep burial chamber that lay almost one hundred feet underground. The burial chamber was part of a maze leading to secret rooms.
Years went by and the tombs changed a lot. The kings were to be buried inside something that looks like a coffin. Most part of the tomb is made out of gold. The tomb would probably have the face of the pharaoh in gold (the outside). Some tombs would have the face of one of the four sons of hours. Their names are: Hapi, Duamutef, Imseti, and Qebsenuef. Hapi is the bamboo, Duamutef is the Jackal, Imseti is the human head, Qebsenuef is the bird.
The tombs would also hold food so that the spirit could eat. It would also hold some valuable items so that the spirit would look good. It will hold some things that the king likes so that the spirit could play with them. It would sometimes hold pets so that the spirit could play with them when he dies. That is how the tomb would look like.
Pyramids:
Pyramids are the burial grounds of the mummies. The pyramid of Giza is one of the most famous pyramids. It is in greater Cairo, Egypt. All four sides of the pyramid points to a direction. The place the Pharaoh (Khufu) was buried is right in the center of the pyramid. All the blocks that built the pyramid weighed the same. They all had the same length and width.
Khofu ordered all the servants to build that pyramid so that he could be buried there when he dies. The pyramid of Giza is the biggest pyramid so far. The entrance of the pyramid is in the bottom of the pyramid. There is a tunnel that leads to the burial chamber. The tunnels in the pyramid have little oxygen which makes it really hard to breath.
