The Mummification Museum in Luxor

THE MUMMIFICATION MUSEUM

   Place your bones in order,

Reassemble your limbs,
Turn your face towards the beautiful west,
You will return eternally youthful,
Each and every day – Coffin Text

Death has never looked as beautiful or serene, until I gazed upon the face of Ma-Saharti who was an Army Commander and the  High Priest of Amun  during the 21st Dynasty, he lays in his coffin in the Mummification museum at Luxor,  the secrets of his life are held with  a smile on his lips whilst he sleeps.

The ancient Egyptians believed that the mummified body was the home to where the soul or spirit would return to after death, so it was important to preserve a man’s likeness and his body, or his spirit would be lost, if his body was destroyed. The body was believed to be made up of various elements, the ba was a spiritual aspect of the human being which survived or came into being at death, and which was imbued with the fullness of a person's individuality, it was represented as a small bird that could fly away from the body and return again. The Ka is was the intellectual  double and vital force   that transcends the death of the physical body it was  the creative and sustaining power of life and a symbol of intellectual and spiritual power.

Shortly after his death Ma –Saharti was taken to the Beautiful house of the embalmers, where the Overseer of the Mysteries wearing the headdress of the Jackal god Anubis presided over his mummification process. During the religious purification and embalming  Sacred texts and ritual formula’s were recited by an assistant with the title of  Her heb, these rituals re-united his body with the spiritual elements that Ma –Saharti had possessed in life, and enable him to enter the eternal  life. The ancient Egyptians believed that a person Spiritual elements consisted of the Ka - this was his creative life, personality and his body double, the Ba- a winged spirit with the head of a man and body of a bird this held the man’s soul, the ba was immortal, when the ba leaves the body it flies away like a bird, the body then dies, a man cannot live without his soul.  The ankh was a spirit that would travel through the underworld to face the final judgment of Osiris to reach the entrance to the afterlife.

The process of mummification was to remove the brain, which was scrapped out of the skull through the nostrils with metal instruments it was a mans heart that  was considered to be the seat of his conscience memory and personality,   it was the heart that would face Osiris in the hall of Judgement, and so it alone was left inside the body but an incision was made by the assistant  with the title of Wetyw to remove the remaining internal  organs,  he then wrapped the organs in linen and placed them inside four individual  canopic jars that represented the four sons of the god Horus. Hapy a baboon headed god protected the lungs, Imsety a human headed god protected the liver, Duamutet the Jackal headed god protected the stomach and the falcon headed god Qebehsenuef protected the intestines.

Once the internal organs were removed the corpse was treated with dry natron for forty days, then washed with the waters from The Nile once more, the internal cavity was packed with resin and the body was rubbed with sacred oils  then the  whole corpse was carefully wrapped in hundreds of yards of linen bandages sealed with a glue enclosing many  amulets beneath the bindings to help protect the deceased,  The Book of the Dead related where to place the amulets to give the maximum  protection and help to the body.   The scarab amulet was placed over the heart with a spell engraved on it encouraging the heart to be silent when faced by the gods in the Hall of judgement when the heart was weighed, the ankh amulet would energize the spirit once it had been resurrected.  Tutankhamuns mummy concealed over 100 amulets. The whole process of mummification took seventy days, and then finally the priests placed a death mask, which is a portrait of the man over the resin coated bandages to help his spirit recognize his body and guide it safely home to the body once more. The mummy was then placed inside the coffin and returned to his relatives for his burial across the River Nile on the western shore of Thebes.  The goddess Isis and her sister Nephthys would protect Ma-Saharti on his final journey across the River Nile on the funeral barque and then oxen drawn sled to the entrance of his decorated tomb. During the slow journey mourners wailed and expressed their sorrow by throwing sand over their heads. Until they arrived at the tomb and then a peace came over the mourners as incense was lit and the coffin of Ma-Saharti was taken off the sled and raised like a statue before the procession and the magical ceremony the Opening of the Mouth was given to restore his speech sight and hearing before he entered his tomb where the sarcophagus and all the comforts of his earthly home had been placed and would be waiting to receive him.  One mortal life had ended but an eternal life was about to begin

The mummification museum presents all the implements that are used during the mummification process. The entrance to the museum is rather discrete and can easily be missed; it can be almost like trying to find the entrance to a tomb itself, It submerges underground from a spiral set of steps. Inside the museum the subdued lighting then peacefully re- creates the solemn and religious journey that helps the body and soul travel towards the afterlife. As part of the exhibition there are animal mummies on display, including a crocodile these were sacred to the god Sobek and were raised and kept in a pool in the precinct of the Temple of Kom Ombo, there is also a mummified ram representation of the God Amun and presented in a beautifully painted gold gilded cortonage mask, there is a   baboon who was sacred to the God Thoth & the Valley of the Kings. Thoth would record the verdict of the court in the Hall of judgment once the heart was weighed.

The exhibition also displays the coffin of Ma-Saharti, and the beautiful and richly decorated anthropoid (human shaped) coffin of Padiamun, Gods Father Amunre of the 21st dynasty. When a mummy was ready for burial it was fitted with a death mask and during the 21st dynasty these masks covered the entire body and were called mummy covers. They are made of wood and covered with gesso and then painted with religious images and texts, these were to help protect the deceased contained in their coffins and keep them safe through their journey into the underworld and the realm of Osiris.