Egyptian Religion

Introduction

Without the ancient Egyptian Religion, there would probably be no reason for one to visit Egypt today. The great Pyramids would not exist, nor of course, would there be the fabulous temples, the tombs and their mummies, or the colorful decorations that adorn these structures that have lured travelers to Egypt over the past three thousand or so years. Behind every aspect of Egyptian life, including the art, the political structure and the cultural achievements, one must see the religious forces that shaped the fabric of ancient Egypt.

1) The spiritual world that was created by the ancient Egyptians was a richly fascinating one which remains unique in the history of human religion. One thing that does seem familiar about their ancient religion was that people were very concerned about the afterlife. Furthermore, in order to avoid being counted among the damned of the afterlife, one had to not only venerate the Egyptian gods, but also live by a code of standards that would be judged after death.

2) Surgery:

It is said that Egyptians are pioneers in surgery because of their way to bury people required to do it to purify the person’s soul.

3100 B.C à all surgery records in walls are about circumcision, considered as the first medical activity in human history made by Egyptians.

Papiro ebers: it is a twenty meters paper that contains recipes, a pharmacopoeia and description of numerous diseases and some cosmetic treatments.

3) Mummification:

Process for An important man who has died and his body needs to be prepared for burial. The process of mummification has two stages. First, the embalming of the body. Then, the wrapping and burial of the body.

Embalming the body

First, his body is taken to the tent known as 'ibu' or the 'place of purification'. There the embalmers wash his body with good-smelling palm wine and rinse it with water from the Nile.

The first step that embalmers make is to nip the left part of the body just to remove the bowels due to that those are the parts that gets rotten first. Then, the body is covered and filled with natron, a material that will make the body dry. All bowels and fluids are saved apart for the rest of the burial. After forty days the body is washed again with water from the Nile. After that, the body is covered with oil just to conserve an elastic skin on the body. Then the body is filled with sawdust, and finally it is covered again with good-smelling oils. It is now ready to be wrapped in linen. In the ancient times, when internal organs were removed from the body they wew put on different jars to make a difference between the most important ones and the not important ones.

After many years, the embalming practices changed and so the embalmers began to return the internal organs to bodies after the organs had been dried in natron.

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