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Ramses the Great Dies
  The Pharoah's Death   The Reign of Ramses the Great   Preparing the Pharoah for the Afterlife  
          Preserving the Pharoah's Earthly Form  
  Restoring Ramses to Youth
  The Pharoah's Final Resting Place


illustration of canopic jars
Canopic jars
  The embalming procedure is designed to ensure the pharaoh's entry into the kingdom of Osiris. Mummification involves the following steps.

dingbatThe pharaoh's internal organs will be removed.

dingbatEach organ will be preserved and, except for the heart, stored within a canopic jar. After preservation, the heart will be placed back inside the body.

dingbatTo extract all the moisture from the pharaoh's body, embalmers will treat it with natron, a natural salt, for 40 days.

illustration of stages of mummification
Stages of mummification
dingbatOnce the body is completely dry, embalmers will wash it with wine, herbs, spices, flowers, and chamomile oil, and treat it again with natron.

dingbatFinally, they will preserve it with a coating of liquefied tree resin.

dingbatTo keep the pharaoh's skin supple and unbroken, they will apply a concoction of cedar oil, wax, natron, and gum.

dingbatThe embalmers will restore the natural contours of the pharaoh's earthly form by filling the body cavitywith linen, sand, or sawdust.

dingbatFinally, they will carefully wrap the pharaoh's body in linen, coiling the cloth around the fingers and toes and arms and legs individually. In the end, they will apply more than a dozen alternating layers of tightly wrapped shrouds and linen strips to the entire body and treat each layer with liquefied resin to bond the pieces of fabric and render them stiff upon drying.

   

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