What comes to your mind while you come across the word, Egypt? Most probably you may imagine The GREAT PYRAMID OF GIZA – the biggest Egyptian pyramid and the tomb of fourth dynasty king KHUFU, built around 4500 years ago which continues to amaze the world even today. Beside this there is also a fascinating method of embalming, or treating the dead body, that the ancient Egyptians used called Mummification. A mummy is a dead human whose tissues as well as organs have been preserved by the ancestors.

According to them the purpose of mummification was to keep the body intact so that it could be transported to spiritual afterlife as they believed in life after death. They preserve the dead bodies of Pharaohs(ancient egyptian rulers) so that they could use them in afterlife. Moreover, they also believed that after death, the soul travels to the overworld, where it is then judged by the Gods. Those who lived a life of goodness remain immortal in the afterlife. So to prepare for the afterlife the Pharaohs would make tombs for themselves while they reigned. A large amount of food, treasures, jewellery , furniture, clothes were to be buried with the Pharaohs in the pyramid, so that they would use it in the afterlife. After they died, their bodies were mummified and then sealed in a wooden or stone sarcophagus(coffin).

A 4300 year old Mummy
Archaeologists found a mummy covered with gold ornaments inside a limestone sarcophagus that had remained shut for more than 4 millenia. On 26 January 2023 Egypt announced the discovery of mummy which was estimated to be around 4300 years ago. “This mummy may be the oldest and most complete mummy found in Egypt till date”, Zahi Hawass, a former antiques minister, said in a statement. This mummy is believed to a man named Hekashepes.


Image by Miguel Á. Padriñán On Pexels


Pharaoh TUTANKHAMUN

Pharaoh Tutankhamun also known as King Tut is without a doubt the most famous Egyptian Pharaoh. After his death he was buried in a golden sarcophagus. However, his father and mother were both blood related siblings and he himself was married to his half sister. Tutankhamun was born with a clubbed foot and possibly Kohler’s disease which is a rare bone disorder. Moreover, he could not walk without the help of a cane or an assistant. He had an elongated head, possibly due to artificial cranial deformation.
According to popular rumors King Tut must have died probably due to malaria or an infection in broken leg at an early age of 19, but officially the reason of his death is still a mystery.
What according to you must be the reasons of his death at such an early age?



Some facts related to King TUTANKHAMUN

1. Tutankhamun was having the smallest royal tomb in the valley of kings.
2. Tutankhamun was buried in a second hand coffin.
3. Tutankhamun loved to hunt ostriches, as inferred from the painting in his tomb.



King Tutankhamun’s tomb was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter a British archaeologist. When the mummy was found there was no heart in his body. The absence of Tutankhamun’s heart does not appear to be the result of theft, but instead, may be an allusion to a famous story in the legend of OSIRIS(judge and the lord of death) when his body was cut apart by his brother seth and the heart was buried.
Today the king Tut’s mummy remains on display in Grand Egyptian Museum within the tomb in the valley of the kings in the KV62 chamber.


Before exiting the topic,Do you know which place in the world are famous for the Largest Pyramid ?