Dear Journal,
Today I went to the Coptic Christian Church and I learned a little about the ancient Egyptians beliefs and religion. I entered the church, and I saw a bunch of people working. I decided to do a little exploring for myself and I thought it would be interesting to look at what type of gods they believed in. The ancient Egyptians believed in polytheism, which means that you believe in more than one god. There were multiple pictures of Gods on the wall, telling me about their gods. Many people believed in Amun, which was a Pharaoh. They also believed in Re, the sun god. Re was so important because since he was the sun god, he helped all their crops grow which was a big part to Egypt's success. This showed that the Egyptians believed in many gods. This was called polytheism. Religion guided every aspect of ancient Egyptian life. The religion was solely based on polytheism. There were up to 2,000 gods and goddesses. Some gods were worshipped throughout the whole country, while others had a little following. Something I thought was really cool was the process of mummification. First, the head and neck are wrapped up. Then, the fingers and toes are wrapped up separately. The arms and the legs were wrapped up too. Between the layers of linen, the embalmers placed amulets to protect the dead persons body through their afterlife. Then, a priest would read some spells that that person would need later for the journey of afterlife. The spells would ward off evil spirits that they would encounter through the underworld. Then, the legs were tied together and some spells from the book of dead are placed between the mummy's hands. Then, a whole cloth is wrapped around the whole body and is placed into the coffin. That is the process of mummification! Pyramids were built to worship the dead pharaohs and give them a great afterlife. In Pharaoh, Life and Afterlife of a God by: David Kennet, it states," The lungs, intestines, liver, and stomach, which have been removed from the body, are preserved and stored separately." This means that embalming was very important to the Egyptians and they also took great care of doing it. |