The ancient Egyptians built pyramids as tombs for the pharaoh  and their queens. The pharaohs were buried in pyramids of many different shapes and sizes from before the beginning of the old kingdom to the end of the middle kingdom. There are about eighty pyramids known today from ancient Egypt. The three largest and best-preserved of these were built at Giza at the beginning of the Old Kingdom. The most well-known of these pyramids was built for the pharaoh Khufu. It is known as the ‘Great Pyramid’. Go to http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk

Mummified

    Over one million animal mummies have been found in Egypt, many of which are cats. The oldest known naturally mummified human corpse is a severed head dated as 6,000 years old, found in 1936 at the site named Inca Cueva  in South America. 

    Many of the body’s organs are removed and put in jars, to be buried with the body. The body is packed in natron  salts and allowed to dry for 40 days.

linen bandages are wrapped around the bodyto preserve it.  Charms,  called amulets, are placed within the bandages to ward off evil.   A  mask is placed over the headand shoulders before the body is put in the coffin

          In some cases, a mummy has been discovered in an unmolested tomb, only to be found in a state of advanced decomposition due to the proximity of the water table. This was the case with the discovery in 1998 of the mummy of Iufaa, an Egyptian priest and administer who lived around 500 BC.The most famous Egyptian mummies are those of Seti I, Rameses II, and Tutankhamun (13th century BC).

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