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The Ancient Egyptians believed in the 2nd life, they believed that death is a middle stage between the first life which was considered short in compare with the second life which was considered eternal.  

Mummification Philosophy : 

They understood that the mummy will be re-untied again with the body to continue the journey in the second life, but they were not sure if the body of the first life must be the same body for the second life or no, they thought that maybe the spirit will get a new version of that body, but they were not sure about this thought, so they decided to preserve the body of the first life, and they invented mummification. I believe that the origin of this name Mummy is the Persian word mūm, which means wax, because the skin of the mummy looks like it was covered with a layer of wax but black colour, it is called mūmiya in the Arabic language (مومياء).  

Mummification was available to everybody or was just for kings?

We found mummies related to kings, nobles, rich people and middle-class people, Mummification was available to anyone but under one condition, how much money they can pay. We found hundreds of mummies from different classes, and each class had its own quality according to how much money the pay the embalmer which of course will reflect on the quality of the materials used in the operation,Of course, the best examples for mummies are the royal mummies. I don’t think we found a mummy for poor people in good condition.  

Who was doing the mummification operation, priest or doctor?

The one who is responsible in doing the mummification operation is a doctor who was originally was a priest, we understand that education used to be through the temple, so the first title the student would get was ‘’priest’’ then he studied other subjects. But according to the story of Osiris and his death, Anubis who embalmed his body and prepared Osiris to the afterlife, so we must know that the original embalmer was Anubis. That’s why the priest had to wear a mask of Anubis while doing this operation (at least for few minutes). Anubis or Inpu (this how the Ancient Egyptian called him) Anubis was considered as the guardian of the cemetery and protector of the dead people.    

What are the steps of the mummification operation?

As we understand that this operation used to take place at the so-called Valley temple where the mummify the dead bodies of the kings, and there is another place for the non-royal people and middle class, there were special tools for the royals used for just one time and it was buried with them in their tombs, but for the non-royal the tools would be used several times like the mummification table.     1- Insert a hook through the nostril, and take the brain out piece by piece, if part of the brain didn’t go out maybe because of big skull, they used to make a hole in the backside of the skull and drain what was left from this hole. 2- They made a cut near the tummy (left or right or above) to take 4 organs out of the body A- Stomach & Intestines B- Kidneys C- Liver D- Lunges   We don’t know the order of taking those organs out of the body, but what we know that they replaced them in 4 jars called Canopic Jars (it was called Canopic Jars because so many of them were found in a city called Canop) Hapi, the baboon-headed god representing the north Duamutef, the jackal-headed god representing the east Imseti, the human-headed god representing the south Qebehsenuef, the falcon-headed god representing the west     3- They took the heart out and treated by some mummification materials and must be replace again inside the body. The person will need the heart inside the court of Osiris ‘’The Judgement of Osiris’’   4- Rinse inside of body with Papyrus and Lotus oil and other materials 5- Add Natron salt and tar 6- They wrap the body with bandages of linen (not cotton) because linen is very good fabric against humidity. 7- They finished their operation in a time between 40 and 70 days. 8- They add amulets (Gold, Silver, precious and semi-precious stones) 9- They place the mummy inside the coffin 10- The place the coffin inside the tomb