When it comes to Egypt, people may think of mummies. The word comes from Arabic, which means asphalt, and later refers to mummies preserved for a long time after antiseptic treatment. Making and preserving mummies is a very popular custom in ancient Egypt, but why did the ancient Egyptians mummify the dead?

The ancient Egyptians had a strong concept of the afterlife. They believe that the soul is immortal and that the world is temporary and the afterlife is eternal; The afterlife is the representation of the world, and death is the continuation of life; After death, the soul will return to its original body and make mummies, so that the immortal soul can have a complete home. For the ancient Egyptians, death is not a terrible thing, because the afterlife will be happier than this life. Egyptian pharaohs built pyramids before their death to give their souls a place to live after their death.

Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian, and others recorded the process of mummification: sucking the brain of the deceased from the nasal cavity; Make a small incision in the abdomen of the deceased, take out the internal organs and soak them in a jar filled with normal saline; A large number of sodium carbonate crystals are put into the body cavity to dry, filled with linen impregnated with resin, and then the incision is stitched; Wrap the body in linen from beginning to end and coat it with resin. In this way, a long-lasting mummy was made. After mummies are made, they are put into pyramids with jars containing internal organs or buried in painted coffins.

The process of mummification is actually very complicated, time-consuming, laborious and expensive. Only nobles have the ability to make exquisite mummies, and civilians can only do it hastily. Mummies similar to Egyptian mummies have also been found in some ethnic tombs in other regions, such as Bazerek's tomb in southern Siberia, the Andes in South America and the ancient Indian civilization sites in Xinjiang, China.