\paperw3690 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 The sarcophagus was the house of the dead and it was made in the shape of the pharaohÆs palace.\par
The deceased could ôobserveö the
world through eyes carved or drawn on the sarcophagus and could emerge through the false door to inspect the treasure stored in the chambers of the tomb.\par
At the end of the Old Kingdom the wooden sarcophagus made its appearance. This was a parallelep
iped painted with representations of the things that the deceased held most dear.\par
The funerary texts, previously written on the walls of the burial chamber, were now inscribed on the sides of the sarcophagus.\par
During the New Kingdom, the sarcoph
agus underwent a further modification and took the form of the now mummified human body.\par
A mask reproduced the features of the deceased, the inscriptions were taken from \i The\i0 \i Book of the Dead\i0 and the decorations were rich and joyful.
\par
The mummies of pharaohs were buried in sarcophagi that were often made entirely of gold, studded with precious stones, lavishly embellished and placed one inside the other.\par
These ôChinese boxesö in the shape of mummies were then placed inside a l
arge, quadrangular sarcophagus carved out of costly stone.\par
Anthropomorphic sarcophagi carved from hard stone started to appear at the time of the Twenty-fourth Dynasty.
