Photos of the Inspiringly Beautiful Art of Ancient Egypt

The Afterlife & Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egyptians believed that after death they would travel to a world that mirrored the real world. To get to the Afterlife required special rituals and burial practises to be observed. 

The Underworld

Egyptian religious doctrines included three afterlife ideologies: belief in an underworld, eternal life, and rebirth of the soul. The underworld was reached by traveling through the tomb of the deceased. to where Osiris would determine the virtue of the deceased’s soul and grant those deemed deserving a peaceful afterlife.

Religious Rituals

Firstly to achieve the ideal afterlife, many practices had to be performed during one’s life, which would have included acting justly and following the beliefs of Egyptian creed. Additionally, it was the responsibility of the living to carry out the final ritual that would facilitate the decease reaching the Afterlife. This included mummifying the deceased body and burying it with all the necessary goods and food required in the next world.

Tomb Goods

To facilitate the journey to the Afterlife the deceased was buried with spells in a scroll that know as The Book Of The Dead. Deads from their life were also written in the book and this would be presented to Osiris for her final judgment to see if the deceased was worthy of The Afterlife.

An incredible variety of tomb goods necessary for the Afterlife including small statues of all the servants, cooks, brewers, bakers and pets that the deceased would need to serve them.

Tomb Goods Preservation

Thanks to the dry conditions in Egypt and the many well hidden tombs that were not found by tomb robbers, today we can see an incredible number of Ancient Egyptian antiquities in museums around the world. As Egyptian art is rich and mysterious, the antiquities of Ancient Egypt have always caught the publics imagination.