What do I know about Egyptian afterlife? We are all well aware of the pyramids built by the ancient Egyptians both as monuments to their dead and as doorways to the hereafter. They still stand today as testimony to a lost civilization.
Until last year there were thought to be around 140 pyramids across Egypt. But, thanks to space technology, satellites have now helped locate 17 further pyramids and 3,000 ancient settlements hidden underground. According to a feature in the DAILY MAIL more than 1,000 burial sites were also discovered thanks to infra-red technology capable of probing beneath the desert sands from 450 miles above the Earth.
Sarah Parcak, a NASA-funded archaeologist, said: "I couldn't believe we could locate so many sites. To excavate a pyramid is the dream of every archaeologist." Dr Parcak, from the University of Alabama in Birmingham, analyzed images from satellites equipped with cameras powerful enough to zoom in on objects less than three feet in diameter on the Earth's surface.
Ancient Egyptians used mud bricks much denser than the sand and soil surrounding them, so allowing the shapes of homes, temples, tombs and other structure from thousands of years ago to be seen.
Two pyramids at Saqqara (burial ground for the ancient capital of Memphis) have already been confirmed by excavations, with the site now being hailed as one of the most important in Egyptian archaeology. Prior to this find, Djoser's Pyramid at Saqqara, built around 2,600 BC, was one of the oldest pyramids ever discovered.
Ancient Egyptians attached huge importance to their afterlife, devoting much of their time and wealth to preparation for their death. The afterlife was seen as a continuation of life on earth, so the dead man would need in his tomb every necessity and luxury he'd needed in life. Simultaneously, the ancients had a human fear of the death they saw as inevitable.
How did they reconcile the inevitability of death with the divinity of their king who - as a god - was above death? Maybe the answer lies in the myth of the god Osiris - believed once to have ruled as king of Egypt. Set, his brother, murdered him and seized the throne - only to be defeated by Horus, Osiris' son.
Horus avenged his father, becoming king of Egypt. Osiris, the embodiment of vegetation that dies in winter and is resurrected in spring, lived on as lord of the Underworld and every subsequent king of Egypt was thought, after death, to become Osiris and partake of his kingdom in the hereafter.
There - I hope you'll feel I've given you at least a little taste of the Egyptian afterlife?
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