 This is King Tut’s Mask.

 When you think of a mummy what comes to mind? Most of us usually picture an Egyptian mummy wrapped in bandages and buried deep inside a pyramid. While the Egyptian ones are the most famous, mummies have been found in many places throughout the world, from Greenland to China to the Andes Mountains of South America. A mummy is the body of a person (or an animal) that has been preserved after death. Normally when we die, bacteria and other germs eat away at the soft tissues (such as skin and muscles) leaving only the bones behind. Since bacteria need water in order to grow, mummification usually happens if the body dries out quickly after death. The body may then be so well preserved that we can even tell how the dead person may have looked in life.  Mummies are made naturally or by embalming, which is any process that people use to help preserve a dead body. Mummies can be dried out by extreme cold, by the sun, by smoke, or using chemicals such as natron. Some bodies become mummies because there were favorable natural conditions when they died. Others were preserved and buried with great care.  The ancient Egyptians believed that mummifying a person's body after death was essential to ensure a safe passage to the afterlife.

 Over time almost all Egyptians who could afford to became mummies when they died - - a total of about 70 million mummies in 3,000 years. By the 4th century AD, many Egyptians had become Christians and no longer believed that mummification was necessary for life after death. Eventually, the Egyptians gave up the art and science of making mummies.  So where did all the mummies go? Sadly, most were plundered in ancient times by grave robbers and vandals looking for treasures wrapped up in the bandages. Countless mummies were also destroyed during the Middle Ages, when they were ground into powders to make supposedly magical potions. Later on, modern treasure hunters blundered into their tombs looking for artifacts and souvenirs. Even industry aided the destruction by using mummies' bandages to make paper or burning their bodies for fuel.  The best preserved mummies are those of the pharoahs and their relatives. These mummies tended to be more carefully embalmed and protected from harm. The mummies that have survived allow us to look back into the past and know something of the ancient Egyptians and their time. Three of the most famous Egyptians mummies are Tutankhamen, Seti I and Rameses II (Ramses the Great).

 The ancient Egyptians believed that death was the end of physical life in this world. But they also believed that through death one could be renewed and live an eternal life free from the physical limitations of age or poverty, just as the god Osiris had, who was also once a mortal human. One's renewal didn't come about in this world, though. Renewal came about in the mysterious underworld of the primeval waters, known as "Nun."  The Underworld was seperate from this world. One could not see it or get to it by normal means, though. The Underworld could be reached only through your imagination, and through your knowledge of the path of the sun.  Ba returning to the tomb. The ancient Egyptians believed that the sun moved around the Earth. During the day, it traveled from the eastern to the western horizon. After setting in the west, they believed the sun descended into the Underworld and traveled under the earth until it came up again in the east. For this reason, the Underworld is sometimes called the "West."  It is down into this place under the earth, then, that the mummified dead go when they die. The mummy's tomb was identified with this Underworld, where the mummy remained motionless while its ba traveled freely throughout the mysterious spaces seeking to unite with its ka.

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