Tombs of the Pharaohs

THE FIRST TOMBS

Although coffins and the sarcophagus did a pretty good

job of protecting the mummy, the greatest safeguard
against bodily damage was the tomb itself. The most
elaborate tombs are the pharaohs' pyramids, but other
tombs were underground or carved out of the sides of
cliffs.

The first tombs were plain-looking flat-roofed buildings

called mastabas. They were positioned near each other
like houses in a neighborhood. This arrangement was
called a “city of the dead,” or necropolis. Then, Imhotep,
a priest and architect got the idea to stack a smaller
mastaba on top of a larger one, and then an even
smaller one on top of that. This was the first pyramid
and was called a step pyramid, built for King Zosher.

THE PRYAMIDS

The step pyramid eventually inspired the construction of

the bent pyramid and the traditional perfectly
geometrical pyramids like the Great Pyramid which
belongs to Khufu. The Great Pyramid is the largest of all
the pyramids holding nearly 2 million stones the
smallest weighing about 2 tons. It is the only wonder of
the world that still exists today. Even the Nubians to the
south liked pyramids— in fact, there were more
pyramids in Nubia than in Egypt! Nubian pyramids were
smaller and more pointed than Egyptian pyramids.

Later on in the middle and the new kingdoms, the

Egyptians decided to stop making pyramids and instead
carved their pharaohs’ tombs in the sides of the cliffs in
an area of southern Egypt called The Valley of the Kings.
King Tut and His Tomb
In 1920 an Englishman by the name of Howard Carter
discovered the only tomb ever to be found intact.
This was the tomb of the boy king Tutankhamen or
better known as King Tut. The life of the men
involved was never the same. Many died mysterious
deaths and had weird accidents after they broke the
seal of the tomb. However the treasures of that tomb
cover an entire wing of a museum and are considered
some of the most magnificent finds in archeological
history.

King Tuts Ka statues

INSIDE THE TOMB

A person's favorite possessions would be placed with

them in the tomb to let the mummy be prepared for
the afterlife. King Tut must have really enjoyed his
afterlife- he was provided with hunting weapons,
senet game boards, chairs, make-up, food, statues,
sandals, clothes, couches, models of boats, and lots
more!

Sometimes a statue modeled after the deceased

would be placed in the tomb with the mummy. These
“ka statues” served as an emergency back-up, to
make sure the ka had a substitute body in case
something ever happened to the mummy.