Pharaohs Ramses I and Ramses II flying closer to the sun

The travails of two mummies of Pharaohs

Street seller in the 1870’s, when the passing tourist could legally purchase mummies as souvenirs, likely how one of them found its way to the Niagara Falls museum. Eventually it was discovered it was a Pharaoh, probably Ramses I.

The sight of pyramids, tombs and mummies misleads us into thinking that the ancient Egyptians had a morbid fascination with death. The reality is quite the opposite; they loved life and strived to keep on living eternally. It all started six millennia ago, when burying the dead in the dry desert resulted in natural mummification. Realising that, the ancient Egyptians set out to improve the process so the mummy could keep on living in the tomb, the ‘home for eternity’.

For the ancient Egyptians the cycle of life did not just happen once a year with the Nile flood, but every morning, when Ra, the sun, rose from the horizon to bring life to the world. But in its nightly travel it was attacked by a giant snake, the Lord of Chaos, attempting to prevent the continuation of life. To sustain this cosmic order of life, to ensure the Nile would flood each year and regenerate the dry land into a lush and fertile wonder, they created statues, temples and pyramids so life would last for “a million years”. Every sunrise was like a resurrection.

Pharaoh was an essential cog in this eternal movement, whose hope for everlasting life was clear in the hieroglyphs used after his name, “given life” and “eternity”. The gift of life was extended to…