Animal Mummification of Ancient Egypt

The ancient Egyptians mummified more than just human corpses. Animals were viewed not only as pets but as incarnations of their gods. As such, the Egyptians buried millions of mummified birds, In your Egypt tours you can know that Cats and Bulls other creatures at temples honoring their worshiped deities The animal mummification process was the same as the human they used to get the vicar out of the body of the animal and preserve it In Jars same like the Canopic jars of the human mummies. Here we will give you an idea about the Animal Mummification of Ancient Egypt.

Many Tombs Housed Pets, Mummies

A Baboon was discovered for example, in the tomb of a Theban priestess of the 21st dynasty, and more modest tombs housed dogs. cats, and birds are probably household pets that their owners wish to keep with them in the afterlife. Some animals even had their own coffin: The favorite cat of Prince Tuthmosis, Eldest son of Amenophis III was buried in a limestone sarcophagus discovered at Memphis bearing the inscription -Osiris Ta-miat the Justified Cat.” The ancient Egyptians saw nothing odd about mummifying animals: They made no essential distinction between humans and animals, and their lives were closely interwoven.Look at Egypt gives you the opportunity to visit Cairo for one day to learn about the greatness of Egypt's history

Animal Worship in Ancient Egypt

Animal worship in ancient Egypt was a permanent feature of Egyptian civilization. Gods might assume, different forms at different periods in history, but then-essential attributes remained the same. Thus, the falcon Horus, is an ancient incarnation of royal power. was sometimes represented as the bird itself and sometimes as a man with a bird’s head. The Apis Bull, at Memphis, and the Ram of Mendes and the Ram of Elephantine, on the other hand, retained their animal form throughout the course of ancient Egyptian civilization. These animals, regarded as living gods, were therefore destined for immortality through mummification. They were unique. There was only one Apis Bull, recognizable by distinctive markings on his hide. He had his own, temple where he was worshiped and a sacred living enclosure where his followers came to see him. When he died he was mummified, and the funeral rites resembled those performed at human burials. His remains were deposited in a massive granite sarcophagus, placed originally in an individual tomb and then, later on, in a huge collective vault—the famous Serapeum at Saqqara. The necropolis dedicated to the Sacred Cows, the Mothers of Apis, was located nearby. Worship and funerary rites were similar in the case of the Mnevis Bull at Heliopolis, the Buchis Bull at Armant, the Ram of Mendes and the Ram of Elephantine, also regarded as living gods. The crocodile god Sobek was worshiped in the Fayuum and at Korn Ombo, and Sobek temples housed sacred crocodiles, one of which may have been regarded as the incarnation of the god himself.

Herodotus describes how the people of Thebes and the Fayuum each had their own tame crocodile, which they fed and looked after. The crocodile wore earrings and bracelets on its front legs and was given sacred food. Strabo, writing four centuries later, adds: “The sacred crocodiles are fed in a lake of its own, the priests know how to tame it and they call it Soukos (Sobek). Certain Animals Were Associated with Particular Gods—For Example, the Cat with Bastet and the Ibis and the Baboon with Thoth the god of wisdom and writing in ancient Egypt.The hundreds of thousands of ibis and cat mummies discovered in the necropolises were apparently offerings bought specially by pilgrims to be mummified and presented to their respective gods. The temple to the goddess Bastet at Bubastis and that of the god Thoth at Hermopolis reared sacred cats and ibises, it seems, expressly for sacrificial purposes a practice that became very widespread during the first millennium BC. Other animals were treated in the same way. A rather different case is presented by the mummy of a frog found in a tomb in the village of Duch, resting between the thighs of a castrated and mummified adult male. According to one version of the myth. when Osiris Was dismembered, his penis was thrown into the Nile and was then devoured by fish. The Duch mummy appears to have been modeled on this myth. The presence of the frog, which is a symbol of rebirth, affirms the belief in the future life of the dead man.

S T Scan of the Ancient Mummies

Animal mummies X-Rays recently many of the archaeologists and Egyptologists who interested in studying Animal Mummification of Ancient Egypt and the Mummies of the animals so they started to use the new and up-to-date technologies and X-Rays to reveal the secrets of the ancient animals. Many museums and expeditions used to examining the animal mummies and give us many amazing facts about how it was mummified and what inside the animal coffins.

Where can you see the Animals mummies in Egypt?

Where can you see the Animals mummies in Egypt? You can enjoy visiting the Animal mummies in Egypt in many museums located in different cities in Egypt that you can visit it during your tour in Egypt. The main place is The Egyptian museum that has a gallery of the animal mummies. Also there are many museums like the Imhotep Museum in Sakkara it has very important Mummies of the sacred ibis and some Eggs of crocodiles. The mummification museum in Luxor this the only museum of its kind that has animal and human mummies of the Pharaohs you can see mummies of crocodiles and Ibis and the sacred Ram there are many gilded mummies of the Rams that was dedicated for the great God Amun. The crocodile museum in Kom Ombo this museum dedicated only for God Sobek the crocodile and it has many mummies for the crocodiles and some statues for the God Sobek and crocodile Eggs you can visit this museum when you visit Kom Ombo temple one of the temples on the Nile.