Ancient Egyptian Mummification

1. Ancient Egyptians believed when a person died the spirit, divided into the ba and the ka, lived on in another world.

2. The ka needed a body to inhabit in the Afterlife, so they took great care to preserve bodies of the dead.

3. Embalming process could take seventy days to complete, carried out in tents in the desert.

4. When embalming, first, the body was washed with palm wine and rinsed it with water from the River Nile.

5. Removed internal organs, liver, lungs, stomach and intestines, washed them and packed them in natron, a preserving salt to dry out.

6. The heart remained in the body as it would be weighed in the Underworld to see if person could carry on to Afterlife.

7. A hook was used to pull the brain through the nose, which was thrown away as it was not considered important.

8. The body was then cleaned out and treated with natron to prevent it from rotting.

9. Forty days later it was washed with water from the River Nile and covered in oils.

10. The organs were originally put into containers called canopic jars.

11. There were four different canopic jars.

12. The canopic jars had stoppers with the heads of four gods, known as the four sons of Horus on them.

13. Hapy, the baboon-headed god looked after the lungs.

14. Imsety, the human-headed god, looked after the liver.

15. Qebehsenuef, the falcon-headed god, looked after the intestines.

16. Duamutef, the jackal-headed god, looked after the stomach.

17. In the later stages of embalming, the organs were wrapped in linen and put back in the body.

18. The body was stuffed with leaves, sawdust and linen to make it look lifelike.

19. First the head and neck were wrapped.

20. Then the fingers and toes were wrapped individually.

21. Then the arms and legs were wrapped.

22. Papyrus scroll with spells written on were put between the hands to help with the journey through the Underworld.

23. Amulets were placed between the bandages to protect the body on its journey to the Afterlife.

24. An amulet was a small decorative piece of jewellery.

25. More bandages, painted with resin to glue them together, were then put around the body.

26. Finally, a large cloth was wrapped around the entire Egyptian mummy.

27. The Egyptian mummy was then enclosed in a wooden mummy case to protect it from damage.