Scarabaeus sacer, common name sacred scarab, is a species of dung beetle belonging to the family Scarabaeidae.

verb (used with object), mum·mi·fied, mum·mi·fy·ing. to make (a dead body) into a mummy, as by embalming and drying.

Your ka is the ghost that lives on after your body is dead. Mummification is a process that stops the body of a dead person or animal from breaking down or rotting.

About 2600 B.C., during the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties, Egyptians probably began to mummify the dead intentionally. The practice continued and developed for well over 2,000 years, into the Roman Period (ca. 30 B.C.–A.D.

6,000 years old

Forget coffins – now you can be MUMMIFIED: U.S. firm offers 21st century version of ancient Egyptian burial rites. If being buried in a box underground doesn’t appeal to you, but you don’t want to be cremated, why not try mummification. The Ancient Egyptians mummified bodies because they believed in the afterlife.

Kydd recently sniffed mummies in the basement of the University of Michigan’s Kelsey Museum of Archaeology and came to this conclusion: “Mummies don’t smell like decomposition, but they don’t smell like Chanel No. 5 either.”

An ancient Egyptian mummy has been ‘brought back to life’ after British scientists recreated its voice. The Egyptian priest, known as Nesyamun, hasn’t spoken in more than 3,000 years. Now the sound produced by his vocal tract has been synthesised using CT scans, 3D printing – and an electronic larynx.

The studies, along with previous research, indicate that many of the mummified corpses of the Egyptian pharaohs died as a result of microbial diseases ranging from tuberculosis [2] to caries [3]; and from malaria to pathogenic fungi.

The ancient Egyptian practice of preserving bodies through mummification is no longer the preferred method to pay homage to our dead, but it is still alive and well in research labs.

Haman

Chinchorro mummy

When the Spanish conquered the Inca in the 1500’s and 1600’s, they forbade the practice of mummification, declaring it pagan. The Spanish destroyed countless Incan burial sites—partly for religious reasons, but also to plunder the gold often buried with mummies. As a result, few Incan burial sites remain.

The first mummy to be wrapped up comes from the Chinchorro culture of South America, in the area of southern Peru and northern Chile. The oldest of these mummies was a person who died in 5050 BC, over 7,000 years ago. These Chinchorro mummies are 2,000 years older than the mummies in ancient Egypt!

the Valley of the Kings

Some of the most famous mummies in the world reside in Egypt, having been excavated from the Valley of the Kings.

All in all, of the tombs of more than 200 pharaohs known to have ruled Egypt from the 1st Dynasty to the end of the Ptolemaic Period, approximately half have yet to be found.

Anubis is the son of Osiris and Nephthys.

YES, it is true. Ramesses II had red hair, and there were ancient Egyptians with blond hair too. Scientists have decoded the genome of ancient Egyptians for the first time, with unexpected results.

King Ramses II

Cairo Museum Royal Mummy Room.

Jochebed is identified by some rabbis in the Talmud with Shiphrah, one of the midwives described by the book of Exodus as being ordered by Pharaoh to kill the new-born male children.

Mastabat al-Fir’aun

The tradition holds that Asiya worshipped God in secret and prayed in disguise fearing her husband. She adopted Moses and convinced her husband Pharaoh not to kill him. She died while being tortured by her husband, who had discovered her monotheism and retaliated to her rebellion against his tyranny.