Why Egyptians Build Pyramids?

The Egyptians strongly believed the term AFTER LIFE . According to the ancient Egyptians , there is a life after the death. Death was seen as the beginning of a journey to the other world. When a person died , part of his spirit (KA) remained with his body. If the body was destroyed , the spirit might be lost and couldn't make its entrance into the afterlife. Therefore in order to protect the spirit , the corpse was mummified and everything the person would need in the after life was buried along with him.

Initially , around 2600 BC ,the practice of mummification were only for pharaohs. In later period (around 2000 BC), this culture was changed and even commoners were also started mummifying their body and also grant access to the afterworld .

Ancient Pyramids

The oldest known pyramid in Egypt was built around 2630 BC at Saqqara for the King Djoser ( 3rd dynasty ) which was constructed by Imhotep (Djoser's royal architect) .
This architecture was called as step pyramids , craved into rock and covered with flat roofed rectangular structure known as mastabas which was a precursor to pyramids.

The pyramid of Djoser (3rd Dynasty)

The first true pyramid(smooth sided , not stepped) was built at Dahshur for the 4th dynasty king Sneferu , named as red pyramid for the color of limestone blocks used.

The Red Pyramid (4th Dynasty)

The Great Pyramids of Giza

The Great Pyramids of Giza

The Great pyramids of Giza at Cairo is the most celebrated pyramids of all time . The great pyramid of Khufu is the oldest and largest among those three which was built for the pharaoh Khufu . Next to this great pyramid , there are three small pyramid (built for Khufu's queens) and a tomb containing an empty sarcophagus of Khufu's mother( Queen Heterpheres ) and also rows of mastabas of his relatives and officials) to accompany and support him afterlife.

The middle pyramid at Giza belongs to (Khufu's son) Pharaoh Khafre , which is the second tallest building contains pharaoh Khafre's tomb. The Great Sphinx , guardian statue with the head of man and body of lion is considered as one of the most unique feature of this pyramid

The Pyramid of Khafre

The Southern most pyramid is the pyramid of Menkaure (Khafre's son) , which is the shortest of three and also this pyramid became a precursor of smaller pyramids that constructed during the 5th and 6th dynasties.

The pyramid of Menkaure

Ka , Ba , Akh

The Egyptians believed that soul had three parts, the ka , the ba and the akh. When a person died , part of his spirit ( KA) will be remained with his body. The Ba is represented as a human-headed bird that leaves the body when a person dies, which can travel between the life and death . Every person will have the ka and ba , but the akh which was only allowed to individuals who was worthy because they were good people when they were alive. So it was believed criminals could not survive in the Afterlife and the criminal could not become or have an akh.

Food would be placed on an offering table in front of the door, serving as a link between the living and the dead. The ka would leave the burial chamber to partake of the offerings, providing sustenance for the deceased. The ba was expected to unite with the ka in order to transform the deceased into akh.

Mummification

The practice of mummification also served as a cleansing ritual for purifying the body of sins of life , before the soul's journey to the hall of truth to stand in.

• As part of this process , all the internal parts that might decay rapidly were removed by the embalmers.
• The heart was left in place .
• The brain was removed by inserting a special hooked instrument up through the nostrils to pull out the brain tissue.

• The organs of abdomen and chest were removed through a cut usually made on the left side of abdomen.
• The other organs were preserved separately in canopic jars , which were also buried along with mummy.

• In later days , mummi's organs were treated , wrapped and replaced in the body.
• The embalmers removed the moisture from the body by covering it with natron for around 70 days( a type of salt which has great drying property)
• The result was a very dried-out but recognizable human form. To make the mummy seem even more life-like, sunken areas of the body were filled out with linen and other materials and false eyes were added.
  
• Next the wrapping began. Each mummy needed hundreds of yards of linen. The priests carefully wound the long strips of linen around the body, sometimes even wrapping each finger and toe separately before wrapping the entire hand or foot..
  
• The amulets were placed among the wrappings and prayers and magical words written on some of the linen strips.
  
• The priests placed a mask of the person's face between the layers of head bandages. At several stages the form was coated with warm resin and the wrapping resumed once again. At last, the priests wrapped the final cloth or shroud in place and secured it with linen strips.
• The mummy was complete.

Part of the funeral, priests performed special religious rites at the tomb's entrance. The most important part of the ceremony was called the "Opening of the Mouth." A priest touched various parts of the mummy with a special instrument to "open" those parts of the body to the senses enjoyed in life and needed in the Afterlife. By touching the instrument to the mouth, the dead person could now speak and eat. He was now ready for his journey to the Afterlife. The mummy was placed in his coffin, or coffins, in the burial chamber and the entrance sealed up.

JOURNEY THROUGH AFTER LIFE

Egyptian religious beliefs included three afterlife ideologies: belief in an underworld, eternal life, and rebirth of the soul. The underworld, also known as the Duat, had only one entrance that could be reached by traveling through the tomb of the deceased. So Therefore there should be a door or way constructed in the pyramid as an entrance to the underworld.

Once the sun set , it believed that the spirit was travelled to the underworld via boat. Therefore Egyptians buried the boat along with the mummy in order to help the travel of spirit towards the underworld.

Boat passages to the underworld were strictly reserved for pharaohs who had died.

Additionally, an alternate vehicle for entrance to the underworld was the coffin. To compare, while passages by boat directed the deceased to the sun god Ra, coffins were thought to guide individuals to the sky goddess Nut.

The deceased required to pass through various gates, doors and pylons located in Duat, . These gates had deities in charge of guarding them, who allowed access only to the souls capable of pronouncing the secret name of the deity themself, as a sort of "password". Therefore the Egyptians also buried the writings which contains all the names of deities.

The deceased's first task was to correctly address each of the forty-two Assessors of Maat by name, while reciting the sins they did not commit during their lifetime. This process allowed the dead to demonstrate that they knew each of the judges’ names or Ren and established that they were pure, and free of sin.

After confirming that they were sinless, the deceased was presented with the balance that was used to weigh their heart against the feather of Maat . The Anubis was the god who administrate this test. If the deceased's heart balanced with the feather of Maat, Thoth would record the result and they would be presented to Osiris, who admitted them into the Sekhet-Aaru (Heavenly paradise in Egyptian mythology). However, if their heart was heavier than the feather, it was to be devoured by the Goddess Ammit, permanently destroying the soul of the deceased, ceasing to exist.