Mummification

Thousands of years ago ancient Egyptians believed in the afterlife and that death is not the end of the journey but the beginning to a new one, They believed that when the person dies his soul will return back to his body and then he will live in the afterlife. But, In order for the soul to return back to the body,it needs to recognize it well. Because if not, it will be lost and therefore so will the dead. So, they gave great importance to preserving the body by all means and possible ways. They created strong tombs and hid it away from thieves and evil. They preserved their belongings and things that they will use in the afterlife and more importantly; their bodies. They preserved their bodies through a process called " The Mummification '', which actually is considered as a secret from the great secrets of the ancient Egyptian secrets. But, science and Egyptologists has not surrendered and they did their best to understand the whole thing, so let's now know all about:

• What is mummification and Why was it called like that?
• Facts about The Mummification process.
• What are the steps of mummification?

1. What is Mummifcation and Why was it called like that?

Mummification is the process of preserving the body of the dead and it had great importance in the afterlife journey to the ancient Egyptians, The priest was the one who took care of this process and knew all its secrets. But however, The ancient Egyptians  didn't know mummification from the first second in their civilization, the process took so many steps and updates: At first they wrapped the body in a mat, then updated the process a little bit to coffins that are made of plants and finally they discovered the mummification. And for the burying process ,they buried their dead in squatting positions like the baby in his mother's womb, then they discovered the terrace, then semi- terrace, then pyramid shape and finally tombs sculptured deep into the mountains. 

Second of all, the word mummification was thought to be derived from the Persian word " Mummia '' that means Bitumen, because scientists thought that Bitumen was one from the ingredients of the mummification process, but no! That was proved to be wrong, the word "mummification" is derived from an Arabic word called " AL-Mumiaa '' which refers to a substance that was extracted from Mountains in Yemen and that is responsible for the black color of the mummies. However, ancient Egyptians didn't leave for us a direct and trust-worthy reference of a guide to know and learn about the mummification process, so all the information we knew is from the writing of the Greek- Historian " Herodotus" beside the tests that the scientists made. And despite that there is still some ingredients we do not know, some assume that ancient Egyptians kept it as a secret of the profession and others assume that because they no longer exist in the world we are living, in other words " existent".

2.Facts about the Mummification process:

• At the beginning of the discovery of Mummification, It was only for rich people because it was very pricey but after that Egyptians managed a cheaper way for mummification so that normal people can afford it and mummify their bodies after death.
• Mummification was still known in Roman times.
• The oldest Mummy belongs to King " Seqenenre Tao" , father of "Ahmos".
• They dried the body before Mummification.
• Some Ingredients that we are sure that it was used: Salt, Gear, Hybrids, Resin, Bee wax, Cinnamon, Corn oil, Cassia, Onion, Juniperus communis, Sawdust.h
• They made sure in the tombs that the soil was dry.
• They treated the linen stamps before covering the mummy with it so that it would last forever.

3.What are the steps of the Mummification process?

(STEP 1)

They opened an opening in the left side of the body to extract and treat the intestine, put it in Linean stamps and then in 4 Jars that they believed were preserved from the four sons of Horus * an ancient Egyptian god*.

(STEP 2)

This step had some debate about it, Some said they soaked the body in Hybrid's solution so that the body can get rid of all liquids in it and therefore it will not mold. And others said that they put the hybrid solution on the body from all sides - just like we do to the fish- to help the body reach the desired dryness degree. However, It was agreed that this process takes from 40 to 70 days in order to be completed.

(STEP 3)

And after the body is dried they stuffed the chest with linean stamps, Resin and sometimes sawdust. In order for the body to look normal, then finally they covered the body with oil.

(STEP 4)