Mummies

 The ancient Egyptians believed that the soul  had three parts the Ka, the Ba, and the Akh. The ka was essentially someone’s double and when the person dies the ka left the body. The reason for the embalming and mummification of people was to insure that when the ka left the body that it would be able to return and have a home. When we visited the museum we learned how the Egyptians would preserve and mummify meat and other foods to leave in the tomb with the deceased so they  would have food in the afterlife. Officials were also buried with jewelry weapons cloths and their mummified pets. 

The second part of the soul the Ba was seen as a human headed bird that was believed to be able to travel between the worlds of the living and the dead. The ba too required food in the tomb to be able to survive. 

The final peace to the soul the akh was a “transfigured spirit who survived death and mingled with gods” one only had a akh he he was deemed worthy by the goddess of truth, justice and balance, Maat Kheru. Maat would take the form of an ostrich feather and the heart of the deceased would be weighed against it. If the heart was in balance with the feather the that person had lived a good and decent life and he was then allowed to pass into the after life. If his heart did not weigh the same as Maat his heart would be eaten and he would not pass through. 

When they mummified people they would remove their organs and embalm them separately and place them in canopic jars. Each organ had its own jar with its own symbols. Except for the heart. The heart stayed in the body so that when it came time for them to be judged it could be weighed. All other soft tissue needed to be removed including the brain which was scooped out through the nose using a hook. A gold plate was used to cover the incision made in order to make the person whole.

Many of the mummies in today’s museum were buried in multiple sarcophagus‘s stacked like nesting dolls. The mummy was decorated with rings and bracelets gold coverings over their fingers and toes and a mask made to look like the wearer. The mask was to protect the deceased from their enemies. The mask also was believed to restore vision to the wearer in the afterlife. There was a ceremony similar to a funeral called the opening of the mouth and after this was preformed the deceased would regain his or her power of speech along with other senses necessary for the afterlife. 

Today we woke up early. 6:30 ish and ate our breakfast at the hotel. We quickly got into our bus and headed to the great pyramids of Giza. We were trying to beat the heat of mid day. We first stopped at the great pyramid where we took pictures and walked around looking at other tombs ment for family members and executive staff. We went to the second pyramid and we got to go inside. We kind of walked/ crawled through this really funny passageway into the burial room of the pyramid. Everything was taken out to it really was just four walls but it was cool to be inside. Then we made our last stop by the Spinx and took some photos. We went to lunch and then back to the museum for two hours. We went back to the hotel and took showers and hung out before leaving again for the train station. Tonight we’re spending the night on the train traveling from Cairo to Aswan. That’s all.

-dagny