Egyptian Afterlife essays

Egyptian Afterlife essays Most of the Egyptian life was preparing for their afterlife. This resulted in the pyramids and other great tombs for the Pharaohs and other nobility. The Egyptians also believed the bodies of the dead had to be preserved if the Ka (indestructible essence) of the person were to live on. The manner in which they preserved these bodies is called mummification. To embalm the mummy the Egyptians first had to remove the brain. They did this through either the nose or from behind the eye. They through the brain away because they didnt know what it was used for. Next they would fill the empty scull with Narton (a salty chemical found on the shores near Cairo) and plaster. Soon after they would cut open the body and remove the lungs, liver, intestines, and stomach and put them in canopic jars adding natron to seal them. Where the stomach was they would add myrrh and natron and fill the rest of the body up with linen rags. They would then sew the body up leaving only the heart inside (the heart was to be weighed later when the person reached the afterlife). Next they would place the body in natron for seventy days and then wrap the body from head to toe in fine linen cloth. Inside most Egyptian pyramids they often kept food, jewelry, cosmetics, clothing, gold, and statues. They also kept likeness of themselves inside their tombs to house their Ka incase something happened to their body. Many of the statues they had were of workers to serve the pharaoh in the afterlife. The afterlife of the Egyptians was a trying, complicated place. They believed they would have to pass through a very dangerous place that contained monsters, boiling lakes, fires, and poisonous snakes. They believed these evils could be overcome with spells, which they often left in or near their coffin (exp. Book of the Dead). If they overcame these perils they would reach the gates of Yaru (the afterlife) where the ...