Tombs Of The Pharaohs The First Tombs Although Coffins And

Tombs of the Pharaohs THE FIRST TOMBS Although coffins and the sarcophagus did a pretty good job of protecting the mummy, the greatest safeguard against bodily damage was the tomb itself. The most elaborate tombs are the pharaohs' pyramids, but other tombs were underground or carved out of the sides of cliffs. The first tombs were plain-looking flat-roofed buildings called mastabas. They were positioned near each other like houses in a neighborhood. This arrangement was called a “city of the dead,” or necropolis. Then, Imhotep, a priest and architect got the idea to stack a smaller mastaba on top of a larger one, and then an even smaller one on top of that. This was the first pyramid and was called a step pyramid, built for King Zosher. THE PRYAMIDS The step pyramid eventually inspired the construction of the bent pyramid and the traditional perfectly geometrical pyramids like the Great Pyramid which belongs to Khufu. The Great Pyramid is the largest of all the pyramids holding nearly 2 million stones the smallest weighing about 2 tons. It is the only wonder of the world that still exists today. Even the Nubians to the south liked pyramids— in fact, there were more pyramids in Nubia than in Egypt! Nubian pyramids were smaller and more pointed than Egyptian pyramids.

Later on in the middle and the new kingdoms, the Egyptians decided to stop making pyramids and instead carved their pharaohs’ tombs in the sides of the cliffs in an area of southern Egypt called The Valley of the Kings.

King Tut and His Tomb

In 1920 an Englishman by the name of Howard Carter discovered the only tomb ever to be found intact. This was the tomb of the boy king Tutankhamen or better known as King Tut. The life of the men involved was never the same. Many died mysterious deaths and had weird accidents after they broke the seal of the tomb. However the treasures of that tomb cover an entire wing of a museum and are considered some of the most magnificent finds in archeological history.

King Tuts Ka statues

INSIDE THE TOMB A person's favorite possessions would be placed with them in the tomb to let the mummy be prepared for the afterlife. King Tut must have really enjoyed his afterlife- he was provided with hunting weapons, senet game boards, chairs, make-up, food, statues, sandals, clothes, couches, models of boats, and lots more! Sometimes a statue modeled after the deceased would be placed in the tomb with the mummy. These “ka statues” served as an emergency back-up, to make sure the ka had a substitute body in case something ever happened to the mummy.