Picture from Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt
Beliefs and Religion
What were the ancient beliefs, and how did they affect the Egyptian's lives?
Ancient Egyptian believed in many Gods and Goddesses that controlled everything in the world. Ra was one of the gods they believed in. He was God of the sun. He was the first pharaoh of the world. Every day, Ra would sail across the sky in his golden sun ship. The people celebrated each sunrise because of Ra "traveling" across the sky. The Egyptians also believed in the Goddess Nephthys. She was the river Goddess. Another Goddess was Bast. The Egyptian really liked cats because they could kill snakes, scorpions, and other creatures. Bast was the Goddess of cats. The Egyptian would wear amulets with her likeness in belief it would bring them good luck.
Three pictures above from The Online World of Rick Riordan: Meet the Egyptian Gods
The Egyptians preserved bodies of their dead through mummification. Learn the succession of embalming and how to make a mummy here!
Picture from livescience
The Pyramids:
Why were the pyramids were built?
Egyptians wanted to honor their pharaohs so they built the great tombs called pyramids. The pyramids protected the bodies of the dead pharaohs from floods, wild animals, and robbers. The Egyptians believed that the pharaohs would be happy if they had their personal belongings. For that reason, they would place the pharaohs clothing, weapons, furniture, and jewelry in the pyramids. The Egyptians believed that they had a spiritual connection with their pharaohs in the afterlife.
How were the pyramids built?
Many workers searched for stone in places throughout the Nile river valley or in Upper Egypt. Then, skilled artisans use copper tools to cut the stone into huge blocks. Next, workers would push the blocks onto wooden sleds. The workers would pull these sleds to the Nile river. The sleds were pushed onto barges that sailed to the construction site. Finally, workers unloaded the blocks and dragged or pushed them up ramps to be set in place at each new level of the pyramid.
Characteristics of the Egyptian Religion:
Afterlife:
The Egyptians had a positive view of the afterlife. They believed that the life after death would be better than the present life. One of the most important Egyptian writings was the " Book of the Dead." It had prayers and magic spells to prepare for the afterlife. In the early times, Egyptians thought that only the pharaohs can go into the afterlife. Later on, all people, rich and poor, could go into the afterlife.
Gods and Goddesses:
The Egyptians believed in many gods and goddesses (see on paragraph one.) The two most crucial gods were the sun God Ra and the river God Hapi. Another important god is Osiris. According to legend, Osiris was an early pharaoh who gave the Egyptian laws and taught them farming.
Animals:
The ancient Egyptians did not veiw animals as pets, but as sacred creatures. As a result , they buried mummies of cats, birds, and other animals in temples to honor gods and goddesses.
Primary Source:
Picture from HistoryWiz
This is a painting that includes some of the gods Ancient Egyptians believed in. In the middle is the god Anubis. He is next to the scale where he measures the heart against the feather of truth to see if the person are worthy of going on to the afterlife. If the person is not worthy the creature on the far right, Ammit the Devourer, will eat the heart and the person will not continue to the afterlife.