Pictorial: A unique story of mummy preservation in the pyramids

The Dhaka Times Desk Some things in history still move people. Like the pyramids of Egypt. The pyramids of Egypt have been understudied over the ages. Today there is the story of the mummy preservation of the pyramids.

How did this idea of the pyramid come about? How were the mummies stored in this pyramid? Many such questions still remain. Not all questions have been answered yet. Many people are interested in mummification in the pyramid and its origin. This contribution of the Egyptians occupies a special place in history. In a word, the pyramids and mummies of Egypt are an incomparable chapter in world history.

When and how the chapter was formed

These pyramids of Egypt were built as tombs of the pharaohs of that time. At that time, the bodies of the pharaohs were not directly buried in the ground but were made into mummies and pyramids or mausoleums were built. According to history, mummification was done before burying dead bodies in these tombs or pyramids. Again there were many corpses which were not made into pyramids as they were of infamous persons but the corpses were buried only after mummification. There was also a novel method behind making these mummies. In this way the mummies were preserved in such a way that they were not destroyed by rotting.

At that time, the Egyptians believed that human life continued after death. And for this reason they did not cremate the bodies of their relatives after death or bury them in the usual manner.

What can be found from the early history is that from about 3 thousand years before the birth of Jesus Christ, they used to bury the dead bodies by adopting a special method while lying in the underground room. In most cases, they preserved the dead by burying them in the desert. However, there was a difference between the rich, the elite or the common people in this burial. White stone pyramids were built over the graves of rich or distinguished people to preserve their memory.

Dead bodies usually begin to decompose after a few days, and so preserving them intact in pyramids or tombs was a difficult challenge for them. At that time, the Egyptians used a special scientific method to keep the corpses intact in the pyramids or tombs. This is called mummy preservation method. Early on, the way they preserved mummies meant that the bodies did not last very long. Due to defects in the method of mummification, the dead body would rot after a few days. That is why the Egyptians at that time tried to invent new methods. As such, they used their old experience to start a new method of preserving the dead body in an intact state for a long time. As a new method, after the death of a person, they cut off some of the organs from his dead body and kept them separately. These organs included brain, stomach, lungs, liver etc. Then they would immerse the cut body parts in 4 special containers in chemicals. A few hours later the organs were transplanted back into the corpse. After that, salt was applied to the corpse and kept in the hot sun to dry. In this way, after drying in the sun for a few days, the cut part of the abdomen of the dead body was stitched very carefully so that no air could enter inside the abdomen. Then they would rub a pot of pine gum on the dead body and apply it. Then they wrapped the dead body in wide strips of linen cloth and made it very thick. They knew that linen cloth is windproof. As a result, air cannot penetrate easily through it. And so they kept the mummy covered with linen cloth in a wooden box with a lid after wrapping the head in cloth. Then the burying started. This is how dead bodies were buried.

Egyptians used to bury dead bodies with wooden boxes in graves. After laying the dead body in the grave with the box, they would put the things that were loved by the dead person in the grave. Because their deep-rooted idea was that the dead person's soul assumed the form of a bird and flew here and there all day happily. At the end of the day, the soul would return to the frozen body. For all such strange ideas, starting from dishes, bowls and furniture, the Egyptians thought it necessary in the grave. So they used to give everything that is essential to the living people for the dead person in the grave. The Egyptians at that time built the most beautiful mausoleums on the graves of rich people.

The largest of these tombs was the pyramid. After burying the body for the pyramids, the Egyptians built huge tombs with white stones around it. They kept some dead bodies carefully inside the pyramid. These pyramids are now just history - now considered one of the wonders of the world. Courtesy: Yugantar Online.