How Did Ancient Egypt Practice Of Mummification

Being on of the oldest civilizations on earth, Egypt is a country in North Africa, on the Mediterranean Sea. The Early Egyptians are thought to have been very knowledgeable individuals. They created and thought of ideas that were far in the future to other groups. When one thinks about the Egyptians, the first thing that probably comes to mind is their practice of mummification. This idea on its own shows the brilliancy that the Egyptians had. After thinking about that process, the next thing that would come to mind would be the Egyptian Pyramids. With a population of 77,505,756 it is a big portion of the Middle East. This population includes about 94% Sunni Muslim and 5% Copts. Lastly, Ancient Egypt was one of the most advanced civilizations of its time. Their advances in
technology gave them agriculture in the desert, a unique form of literature, and world wonders that are still alive and going today. Their success as a civilization is a result of their dedication to finding creative ways to overcome all obstacles thrown in their way.
One of the main ideas that the Egyptians are known for is their process of mummification. In Ancient Egypt, everyone believed in the afterlife. This meant that they thought after an individual passed on, they would be sent into another world. The Pharaohs started to build tombs when they died so they could be buried with all of their treasure so they could take it to the next life. Inside these tombs, they included many treasures such as drawings, sculptures, and paintings. In order to move onto the next life, they thought it was necessary to preserve the body. When they realized that just a coffin alone was not doing the job of preserving the body, they turned to a new method, mummification. This is a process that involves embalming he body and then later wrapping it with thin strips of linen. “The mummification process took around 70 days and involved the following steps: 1.) The body is washed. 2.) A cut was made on the left side of the abdomen and the internal organs - intestines, liver, lungs, stomach, were removed. The heart, which the Ancient Egyptians believed to be the center of emotion and intelligence, was left in the body for use in the next life. 3.) A hooked instrument was used to remove the brain through the nose. The brain was not considered to be important and was thrown away. 4.) The body and the internal organs were packed with natron salt for forty days to remove all moisture. 5.) The dried organs were wrapped in linen and placed in canopic jars” (The Egyptians-Mummies). As seen, Egyptians put a lot of work into getting their bodies ready for the afterlife. The next idea that was brought on by the Ancient Egyptians was the building of the Pyramids.
Built during a time when Egypt was one of the richest and most powerful civilizations in the world, the pyramids, especially the Great Pyramids of Giza, are some of the most magnificent man-made structures in history. The reason that the Egyptians started building these very large structures was because when a pharaoh died, they believed that he became Osiris, the king of the dead. They thought that in order for a king to fulfill his duty, he needed a righteous resting place. This goes to show just how important the pharaoh or kind was in the lives of the ancient Egyptians. After the pharaoh underwent the seventy-day mummification process, they were sent to these places to begin the afterlife. “The first pyramid to be built was the Step Pyramid at Sakkara (Saqqara). It was built by Imhotep for the King Djoser. The step pyramid was originally intended to be a large square mustaba (tomb) built over an underground burial chamber but further extensions were added making a six-layered step pyramid 62 meters in height” (The Egyptians-Pyramids). All together, there have been about one hundred
pyramids

found all over Egypt. The largest ones can be found near Cairo in Giza. Pictured below, is the worlds largest, The Great Pyramid of Giza. The Great Pyramid was originally 481 feet, five inches tall and 755 feet along its sides. It actually covered a great deal of land. It is known that it covered an area of about 53,000 square meters. These pyramids are made up of about 2,300,000 limestone and granite blocks. If you were to be able to weigh one of these blocks, it would be between about 2.5 and 50 tons each. So to imagine the great magnitude of these pyramids is magnificent. In The Great Pyramids, built by Pharaoh Khufu, there are three different burial chambers. “The first is underground, carved into bedrock. The second, aboveground chamber was called the queen's chamber by early explorers. We now know it was never intended to house one of Khufu's wives but perhaps a sacred statue of the king himself. The third is the king's chamber, which held a red granite sarcophagus placed almost exactly at the center of the pyramid” (Redondo, Cameron). It is incredible to think, even with today’s technology, we could not build a replica of this pyramid. The building was too precise to duplicate it. When looking back at these pyramids, it truly shows the knowledge that the Ancient Egyptians had no other group back then had.

One of the main reasons why the Ancient Egyptians were so successful was the fact that they were able to farm he fertile soil around the Nile and produce their own food and cloth. If one was to live in Egypt, there was a good chance that they were a farmer. If they were not a farmer, then someone in their family had to be. Farmers were known to make up the bulk of the population. When farming on the Nile River, they had to go by the cycles of the river. The Egyptians recognized three different seasons: Akhet (flooding), Peret (planting), and Shemu (harvesting). Ususally the flooding season lasted from about June to Septemeber. After the water was soaked up then they were ready to plant their crops.