First, we’ll take a look at a couple of reasons why the Egyptians thought the afterlife very important, then, we’ll look a little bit at their religion, and finally, we’ll look at the mummy process and burial.
For one thing, Egyptians didn’t live very long, for what reason I do not know. This probably had something to do with their view of the afterlife, because there had to be something more since they lived so short a period. Also, children rarely made it to adulthood, often dying as infant or child.
Disclaimer: I’m not encouraging you to believe the system of Egyptian gods and goddesses, I’m only telling you what they believed.
The Egyptian system of Gods was very complex, so I’m only going to share a few facts. First, is was believed that there was only one God, Ra, who created himself and then created the world and all the other gods and goddesses. Osiris, who was said to be god of the afterlife, was married to Isis, goddess of health and life. Now there is a story that Osiris’ brother, Set, god of chaos, wanted to murder him, so he killed him and buried him. But he realized that he buried Osiris whole, and to prevent him from coming back to life, he chopped him into little pieces and buried them separately. Now Isis, who of course was devastated at the loss of her husband, went and took all the pieces and put the back together, also getting the goddess of magic to heal him. Isis and Osiris then went to the afterlife where they made the place for the dead.
To read how the Egyptians made mummies, see the next page. WARNING! DO NOT GO TO THE NEXT PAGE IF YOU ARE FEELING ILL OR ABOUT TO EAT! SOME OF THIS IS REALLY GROSS STUFF!