The Mummification Museum in Luxor
Mummification was a vital part of the lives of the ancient Egyptians. It was the method used by the Pharos to preserve the body of the deceased in order to assist them to survive in the afterlife. The mummification Museum in Luxor was constructed to act as an amazing demonstration of the sophisticated process of mummification.
The Mummification Museum is located in the East Bank of Luxor to the North of Luxor Temple facing the River Nile where the Pharos used to carry the body of the deceased from the city of the living in the East Bank to the city of the dead in the west bank.
The Mummification Museum was established in 1995 and it was first opened for public in the same year. The museum surface area is 2035 meters and it was it was constructed using a wonderful new design.
The museum is divided into two parts. The first part is a panoramic set of stairs that are decorated with ten photos presenting mummification and its process from details of the mortuary ceremony to the burial rituals. Then, the guest reaches the main hall of the museum where the light is placed directly on the displays in a unique magical way.
The Mummification Museum presents a very interesting demonstration of the mummification process that the ancient Egyptians used to implement on dead people and even dead animals and birds. The museum contains more than 190 displays.
The mummification process started with the priests getting the organs of the dead person out of his body. Then they would clean the body properly and put sacred perfumes inside it. Afterwards, the priests used to replace the body organs removed with special substances. The last stage of mummification was to wrap the body carefully with many covers and then place it in its coffin.
The mummification museum contains statues of the ancient Egyptians gods like Anubis, Isis, and Osiris, different substances and liquids that were used in the mummification process like salt that was brought especially from Wadi Al Natrun to the west of the Nile Delta. This is beside the many tools and gadgets that the ancient Egyptians used in mummification like seizers, knifes, spoons, and cutters.
A very important display in the mummification museum is the four canopic jars that were used to keep the bowels of the deceased. These four jars had the names and the shapes of the four sons of the god Horus. The museum hosts as well a number of remarkably colored mummy covers and coffins like the mummy cover of Padi-Amun and Mesaharti that go back to the period of the new kingdom.
