People in ancient Egypt believed the world was controlled by gods and goddesses, each with its own role and personality. Most had human bodies, with animal heads. Anubis, for example, the god of the dead, had a jackal's head. Stone statues of the gods were kept in temples, though people treated them as the actual gods. At dawn, the senior priests would bathe the statues and then bring them food and drink, eating the leftovers themselves. Each town had a temple--the focal point of the community--and large towns might have several. Each temple was like a small city, with dwellings for the priests, a farm for supplying all their food, a school for young priests, and places where the townsfolk could meet and worship.
The ancient Egyptians didn't talk about dying, but of passing into another world, the afterlife.
There they would continue doing what they had done during their lives. Scribes, for example,
would have pens and scrolls buried with them, to carry on writing, and pharaohs would have
jewelery and other luxuries. Tutankhamen's tomb, discovered in 1922, had fantastic treasures, including a golden chariot, so that the young pharaoh could continue hunting in the afterlife. The Egyptians believed that a person's spirit, their ba, had to return to their body each night, after its daytime wanderings. This explains why they went to such trouble to embalm their dead. But only pharaohs and wealthy people could afford the full treatment of being made into a mummy and put inside a sarcophagus (stone coffin).
Although the pharaoh was a living person he, and everyone else, believed he was descended
from a god. Ramesses II, who had red hair, was a descendent of Set, the god of the desert who was associated with the color red. The entire country belonged to the pharaoh, but his subjects could own land by paying him taxes. He was therefore the richest person in Egypt. next...
The ancient Egyptians didn't talk about dying, but of passing into another world, the afterlife.
There they would continue doing what they had done during their lives. Scribes, for example,
would have pens and scrolls buried with them, to carry on writing, and pharaohs would have
jewelery and other luxuries. Tutankhamen's tomb, discovered in 1922, had fantastic treasures, including a golden chariot, so that the young pharaoh could continue hunting in the afterlife. The Egyptians believed that a person's spirit, their ba, had to return to their body each night, after its daytime wanderings. This explains why they went to such trouble to embalm their dead. But only pharaohs and wealthy people could afford the full treatment of being made into a mummy and put inside a sarcophagus (stone coffin).
Although the pharaoh was a living person he, and everyone else, believed he was descended
from a god. Ramesses II, who had red hair, was a descendent of Set, the god of the desert who was associated with the color red. The entire country belonged to the pharaoh, but his subjects could own land by paying him taxes. He was therefore the richest person in Egypt. next...
Ancient Egypt
