MUMMIES

SEE MUMMIES AND MUMMY-CASES IN THE GLYPTOTEK’S EGYPTIAN BURIAL CHAMBER

The body was the soul’s eternal home. This is why the Egyptians embalmed their dead.

The priests removed the internal organs of the deceased, dried the body with natron and swathed it in mummy bandages. They gave the finished mummy a mask over the face and laid it in a coffin, many of which were shaped like a human being. At the same time they dried the internal organs and placed them in four jars, which accompanied the mummy into the tomb.

The Egyptians believed that the soul – in the form of an invisible bird – left the tomb at sunrise and passed the day among the living on earth. In the evening it returned and was given new vital energy from the body. As long as the body existed it was a kind of “charger” providing the soul with this life force.