Archaeologists entered a deep tomb near Deir Bahari and were surprised to find 40 mummies, including the bodies of famous pharaohs such as Seti I and Ramses II; 1898 In 2006, 16 mummies were discovered hidden in the tomb of Amenhot II, 10 of which were royal mummies. Why did the ancient Egyptians make mummies? Some people believe that the main reason why the ancient Egyptians made mummies was because they believed in "eternal life in the next life." It is speculated that since the Paleolithic Age, Egyptians have been afraid of death and believed that the afterlife could more or less get rid of this fear. Therefore, people at that time made careful preparations when burying their dead. In the era of the Pharaohs, due to the widening gap between the rich and the poor in society and the increasingly strict hierarchical system, people's yearning for a better afterlife became more urgent, thus forming the worship of the corpses of the dead. They believe that if the body of the deceased is preserved in a recognizable form, the spirit in the human body, which we often call the "soul", will return to the body of the deceased; if the body is intact and does not decay, the soul and body will Live to another world; if the body rots, the soul will no longer exist and the person will truly die; if a certain part of the body is damaged, the deceased will lose the same part of the body in the next life, so in order to make the deceased In order to continue to live a better life in the next life, the body must be preserved intact. At the same time, the unique natural environment of ancient Egypt also fueled the ancient Egyptians’ hope for the afterlife. The Nile River floods and recedes regularly every year, plants flourish or wither accordingly, and the sun rises and sets every day. The recurrence of these natural phenomena gave the ancient Egyptians the impression that the world is cyclical, and all things in nature can The cycle of life and death should be the same for people. In order to prepare for resurrection in the next life, the body must also be well preserved. It is this belief in immortality in the afterlife that made the ancient Egyptians very meticulous in mummification and burial methods, even to the point of racking their brains. Of course, in addition to believing in immortality, people also make mummies for religious reasons. Among the most outstanding mummies, some were accidentally preserved without careful treatment. Such naturally occurring mummies are usually found in extremely dry deserts or cold regions where the climate prevents the body from decaying. As we all know, decay is caused by bacteria. Bacteria multiply in water, and 70% of the human body is composed of water. This means that the human body provides a place for bacteria to multiply, so corpses are prone to decay. Hot desert conditions can dehydrate bodies quickly and preserve them. As for the cold areas, the low temperature inhibits the growth and reproduction of bacteria. Of course, due to the low temperature, the evaporation rate of the body's water will also be reduced, but because the growth and reproduction of bacteria are inhibited, it buys time for the body to dehydrate, and there is no problem in the preservation of the body. The earliest mummy currently available was formed around 3200 BC. There are no written records of this period. So little is known about these early mummies. It is speculated that because the cultivated land was very scarce at that time, the dead were buried in simple tombs on the edge of the desert on both sides of the Nile Valley. This simple tomb is nothing more than an oval-shaped shallow pit in the desert. People put the corpse into a pit with its head facing south, face north, and toward the place where the sun sets, and then covered with sand. Because the Egyptians buried corpses in the sand for only about 1 meter, the sand gradually drifted over time, inevitably exposing some corpses. These corpses were dried out by the hot sand, making it difficult for normal decay to occur. The corpses, skin, hair and appearance of thousands of years ago were preserved as before. This kind of mummy is called "sand mummy". As the most complete collection of incantations about the afterlife, the Egyptian Book of the Dead provides us with a detailed basis for understanding the ancient Egyptians' ideas about the afterlife. Although the Egyptian Book of the Dead is called a book, it is actually just a combination of strange words, usually with more than 200 chapters. The Egyptians call them "a manual for seeking the afterlife and a guide for tens of thousands of people to ascend to heaven." The Egyptians believed that these symbols could help the deceased reach the afterlife smoothly. The contents of the Book of the Dead at that time included prayers, hymns and incantations. But not everyone has access to the Book of the Dead in the beginning. In the Ancient Kingdom of Egypt about 4,000 years ago, only pharaohs and royal members could use these blessing words. They carved these strange mantras on the inner walls of the pyramids, which were called pyramid inscriptions by later generations. By the Middle Kingdom, this privilege of the royal family began to be enjoyed by noble officials. At that time, these strange spells were often engraved on coffins, called sarcophagus inscriptions. Then around 1400 BC, due to the popularity of papyrus (an ancient Egyptian paper made from reeds that grew in the swamps along the Nile and appeared in the Old Kingdom), people wrote these spells on Papyrus is widely used among the people and is called the Book of the Dead. The Book of the Dead is usually hidden in a secret compartment at the foot of the statue of Osiris, the god of darkness, and then placed in the tomb. The ancient Egyptians believed that only in this way could King Osiris see his achievements in life and lead himself to eternal existence. The ancient Egyptians believed that each person's soul had several ways of existence, the most important of which were the forms of "Ka" and "Ba". "Ka" in ancient Egyptian means "strength, wealth, nourishment, prosperity, effectiveness, eternity, creativity, mysterious power".

"Ba" means "the soul flying freely in the world of yin and yang" in ancient Egyptian. Its shape is usually drawn as a bird with a human head and hands. It has some spells on it that can turn it back into a mummy. The statue of "Ba" is usually attached to the bottom of a mummy box. "Ba" raises its hand, which seems to symbolize the rising of the mummy's soul. The two outstretched arms are symbols of words. In order for a person to live forever, "Ka" and "Ba" must be reunited on the mummy in the tomb. And once the two are reunited, the deceased can live forever. To this end, a series of complex rituals must be performed for the deceased to make his various organs function again, so that the mummy can be resurrected and continue to live in the afterlife. After the Pharaoh disappeared, where did his soul go? The ancient Pharaohs devoutly believed that these gods were their ancestors. The gods are highly intelligent, and they come to earth from heaven. The pharaohs firmly believed that after their death, they would board a solar boat and ascend to heaven, and meet their ancestors somewhere in the universe. Why are ancient Egyptian mummies usually placed in pyramids? Scientific research shows that the shape of the pyramid stores a strange "energy" that can quickly dehydrate the corpse and accelerate "mummification." In 1999, Dr. Havas found two clay pots next to the coffin in the pyramid of Queen Camontanabitius II. Some people believe that these two clay pots were prepared for the rebirth of the tomb owner. Perhaps the ancient Egyptians used this method to seek eternal life. How are mummies made from mud? According to archaeologists, the steps for making mummies are very complicated: It is speculated that the ancient Egyptians first used a flint knife to make a 10-centimeter-long incision on the left side of the corpse's abdomen, and cut out the heart (ancient The Egyptians believed that all the internal organs except the heart (which is the source of emotion) were taken out and washed with wine and spices containing cinnamon. The embalmer also flushes the abdominal cavity of the corpse with cedar oil to decompose the remaining soft tissues; then prepares to remove the brain, using a hooked tool to penetrate the skull through the nostrils of the deceased, hook out the brain inside, and then fills it with cedar oil and spices. Remove the remaining tissue from the braincase. After every part of the body was thoroughly cleaned, the embalmer buried all the organs and the body in a pile of natron powder (a mixture of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate) and drained the water. The body and organs need to be kneaded in sodium chloride powder for about a month. After taking them out, each part is washed with perfume and spices. Then, the embalmer wrapped the dried internal organs in linen and put them back into the abdominal cavity (or placed them individually in clay or plaster jars). Then, they filled the abdominal cavity with fillers such as sawdust, linen, tar, or mud. After filling is completed, the incision will be sutured. Because some hair has been damaged by natron, some wigs must be repaired and braided together with the real hair that has not been lost. Prosthetic eyes also need to be installed inside the eye sockets. All that was left now was to rehabilitate the body. When the embalmer performed this ancient plastic surgery, he carefully made many tiny incisions throughout the body and filled the skin with linen stuffing made according to the contours of the body. Even the face and neck of the corpse were made to look like they were in life, and linen was stuffed in the mouth to make the cheeks plump. Finally, the embalmer also acts as a make-up artist, using colored soil called storage stone to dye the face and even the whole body of the deceased (the male deceased is dyed red, the female deceased is dyed yellow). After dyeing is completed, the body can be wrapped. The embalmer wrapped the body's limbs in dense layer-by-layer layers of rosin-smeared linen cloth, then wrapped the head and torso, and finally wrapped the whole body. After the body has been carefully embalmed, the mask is placed over the deceased's face and secured with numerous bandages. The deceased is often also given a breastplate and footbox in the same manner. In this way, a mummy is made, which takes about 70 days. The embalmer then returns the mummy to the mourner, who puts the mummy in a prepared human-shaped coffin and buries it in the tomb. A nation that does not place its hope of reincarnation in gods would not take it so seriously. Can mummies really be resurrected? Today, low-temperature freezing can protect the freshness of life and temporarily put it into a kind of dormancy. Cell tissues can not only replicate life, but even produce energy. The development of science and technology is indeed staggering. In the early 20th century, cryogenic freezing was just a fantasy. Now, the United States, Russia and other countries have successfully frozen and revived the lives of dogs, fish, etc. Cell culture technology has not only been successfully used in agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry, bringing huge material benefits to human society, but experiments in paleontology and the human body are also getting closer to the edge of breakthrough. Therefore, when biologists from the University of Oklahoma solemnly announced in 1963 that the skin cells of the Egyptian princess Minnie, who had been mummified for thousands of years, were still viable, the whole world was shocked. This means that using existing cell culture technology, we can awaken Princess Meni one day in the near future. It is not absurd for the Egyptian pharaohs to believe in reincarnation. Recently, an Egyptian priest was surprised to hear noises coming from a mummy unearthed outside the city of Lusoy. He suspected that something harmful was hidden inside the mummy, so he left the mummy intact. He was evacuated to Cairo Hospital. When doctors performed an autopsy on the desiccated corpse, they found a pacemaker near the heart. People can clearly hear the sound of the pacemaker causing the heart to beat, 80 times per minute. Although the heart has existed for 2,500 years and has long since dried up, it still beats according to the rhythm of the pacemaker. Tested by scientific instruments, this pacemaker is made of black crystal. Because black crystal contains radioactive substances, it can jump continuously.

After testing, doctors reincorporated the pacemaker into the mummy. No one knows where this black crystal was found, because most of the crystals found now are white, and only a few are light red or purple. As for black crystals, they have never been found. In addition, even if some people in ancient Egypt knew that black crystal contained radioactive substances that could keep the heart beating, how did they put it into the chest? The mummy left people with too many mysteries.