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The pharaoh was supposedly so much better than ordinary Egyptians, that he was actually a god, the son of the Sun-god, Ra. When a pharaoh died, is was believed that he joined Ra in his day boat (the Sun) as he sailed across the sky. The pharaohs built themselves huge burial tombs of stone, the pyramids. Once a pharaoh died, his subjects began a long and intricate process of preserving his body, called mummification. By using the correct chemicals, Egyptians were able to preserve the body of the pharaoh so that it would still be intact in his next life. Mummies that scientists have discovered today are still intact, despite being over 4000 years old! Click here to see the case, called the sarcophagus, that a mummy was found in. Pharaohs were buried deep inside the pyramids, surrounded by all of the things that they might need for their next life. These things included food, jewelry, furniture, even beloved pets, and sometimes a favorite servant who died in order to be able to serve his king when the Pharaoh awoke in the afterlife! The huge pyramids could be seen from all over, however, and were easy targets for thieves to break into and to steal all of these riches. Today, many treasures and artifacts are missing from museums as a result of these grave robbers.
