The bandages fall away to reveal the face of a man who died over 2500 years ago. What did death mean to the ancient Egyptians? Why did they mummify the bodies of the dead? Why did they want to preserve the appearance of life in their dead for all eternity? These are the questions, which I will try to answer today through my speech on Mummies. I've also prepared a power point presentation to show you some visuals of mummies while I speak.
             When u think of the word mummy what's the first thing that comes to your mind? Well to most of us a mummy would simply mean an Egyptian dead body wrapped in bandages, buried deep inside a pyramid. Well actually a mummy is nothing but the body of a person that has been preserved after death. The word mummy comes from the Arabic word mumiyah', which means "bitumen" and it is believed to have preservative value. While the Egyptian ones are the most famous, mummies have been found in many places throughout the world, from Greenland to China to the Andes Mountains of South America.
             The ancient Egyptians believed that mummifying a person's body after death was essential to ensure a safe passage to the afterlife. The Egyptians believed that every person was composed of three essential elements: body, ba, and ka.
             The body is the physical body and is unique to each individual. As a person gets older, the body ages and changes and death is the last change.
             Each person also has a ba. Though the ba is not a physical entity it is also unique to each individual. Ba is very similar to what we call "personality" or "character."
             Each person also has what is called a ka, or life force, and it is the ka, which is the difference between being alive and being dead.
             The Egyptians believed that when a person died, the ba and ka become separated from the body but they do not die. In the next world, or underworld the ka needs to be summoned back to the body and recognize it. But since the body is bound in its...