It took forty days to mummify a body. Egyptans belived that death was the passage way to afterlife so they would get the best burial as they could afford. High rank officials, priest, and other people who sered a pharaoh would have a fairly good burial. Pharaoh had the most wonderful burial of all.

The mummifiction prosses had many steps. The first step is to wash the body. Next is to remove the dead person's organs. A slit is cut into the side of the dead person to remove the intestines, the liver, the stomach, and the lungs. The oragans were soked in natron, which dry out the organs and removed bacteria from decaying the tissuse. Each organ was wrapped in strips of linen and placed in conopic jars. The lids of the jars were shaped like the four heads of the four sons of Horus.Egyptans belived that they would protect the organs. Here is what each jar held.
Four heads of Horus

                 Qedehsenuef, a falcon head- intestines
                 Duamutef, a jackal head- stomach
                 Hapy, a baboon head- lungs
                 Imsety, a human head- liver
 

After the removal of the organs, the body was stuffed with natron. The brain was pulled out from the nose by long hooks. The Egyptans thought that the brain was unimportant so they would throght it in the Nile River. The body was placed on a table and soked in natron. This allowed the fluids to drip away as the body slowly dried out. This took about forty days. After all the natron was removed and the body was dry and shrunken. The slit that was cut to remove the orans was sewn up. The dead person's toes and fingers were protected by golden caps. The body was then wrapped in narrow strips of linen. The entire body was wrapped in twenty layers of linen strips. Risin was used to glue the layers together. The head was wrapped and a mummy mask was put on the head. When the mummy was prepared it was then time to have a funeral. The mummy and its jars weremoved by a sled from were it was mummified to the tomb. egyptians were hired to demonstrate their grief by crying and throughing dust on their hair. Near the tomb ceremonies were done to prepare the dead for the afterlife. On ceremony was the "Opening of The Mouth", it was belived to allow the mummy to see, hear, eat, and drink in the afterlife. Latest news!They've found a new mummy! go to aol keyword "ancient egypt" to see more!
 
 

A picture of mummy mask
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