Egypt: Mummies

• When a person dies, people try to preserve the body by mummifying them
• It was long and expensive process
• It took about seventy days

Step by step:

• First, they washed the body in a river
• Second, they removed the vital organs and put them in jars.
• They dried them out and wrapped them 
• They put the intestines in a jar with the head of a falcon
• They put the stomach in a jar with the head of a jackal 
• They put the lungs in a jar with the head of a baboon
• They put the liver in a jar with the head of a human
• They used a hook to remove the brain. The Egyptians found the brain unimportant so they probably threw it away
• They put the body on a table and let it dry out for forty days
• Then, they stuffed the head and body with packing
• The mummy was then prepared for bandaging
• It was wrapped with about 20 layers
• while wrapping they put gold and nice things in it
• the mummy was finally ready for the funeral 
• pharaohs had the nicest funerals 
• the body and the jars were transported to the tomb by a sled 
• people were hired to show their grief by crying and throwing dust on their hair
• they held religious ceremonies to prepare the dead for afterlife
• the Opening of the Mouth ceremony is said to allow the person to see, hear, eat and drink in the afterlife
• mummification is sometimes so well done that you can tell what the person looked like
• mummies can be dried out by extreme cold, the sun, smoke, or using chemicals
• They believe that mummification ensured a safe passage to afterlife