If not for the Nile River, the ancient Egyptian civilization would never have flourished out there in the desert. Not only did the Nile bring fresh water to the dry land, but every year it brought an especially important gift: fertile soil.

One of the many sources of the Nile is Lake Tana, up in the mountains of Ethiopia. When springtime rains contributed to Lake Tana, an even greater volume of water would flow downstream toward Egypt. Along its journey, the rushing water would pick up lots and lots of soil. But by the time it reached Egypt, the water would be flowing much more slowly and the soil could settle out.

All this extra water came at the same time every year. The Nile would slowly rise and spill over the river banks, gently flooding the valley. Then the flood waters would recede at the expected time, leaving behind a new layer of dark soil on the river banks. The deposit of nutrient-rich dirt made it possible to grow crops in the middle of the sandy desert!

Beyond this strip of precious soil was the barren desert, so the ancient Egyptians didn't have many choices about where to grow their crops. On average, there were only six miles of good farm land along the entire length of the Egyptian Nile. This tiny zone of fertile land needed to support an entire civilization, so it had to be used wisely. This is the reason why the Egyptians chose to locate their graveyards out in the desert beyond.

The earliest Egyptian graves consisted of a shallow pit in the sand, with the dead body laid inside in a curled position. Although the person was buried without clothes, some of their prized possessions- stuff like weapons, hunting supplies, and toys- were placed in the burial pit with them. The people of ancient Egypt believed that upon death, a person's soul split into several parts, and continued to live on in an afterlife. Therefore, these favorite items would still be needed!

Because they were buried in the blistering hot sand under the scorching desert sun, the dead were naturally preserved by rapid drying before they could decay. When a living thing dies, bacteria breaks down the body, recycling it back to the earth. But without sufficient moisture, bacteria is unable to do its job. Instead, a mummy is born!

Somehow the Egyptians caught on to what was happening a few feet below the desert sand, most likely after catching jackals in the act of digging up human remains to eat. Seeing the dried bodies was great news because in some mysterious way, their dead relatives seemed to still be living! The ancient Egyptians saw these naturally-made mummies as proof of an eternal afterlife.

Dead kings and queens (and anyone else wealthy enough to afford it!) were given even better accommodations. Instead of being buried without clothes, they were wrapped in linen, which is a type of cloth made from the flax plant. To protect the body even further, the linen was coated with melted resin (a very sticky plant extract) which created a water proof, varnish-like seal around the body after it hardened.

A coffin was provided as yet another layer of protection, and the dead person was placed inside it with their jewels and treasures and then buried safely away in a grave much deeper than usual. The Egyptians must have been very pleased with their handiwork. No jackals would be able to reach a body wrapped in linen, coated with resin, locked in a coffin, and buried extra deep!

However, these more elaborate burials were disasters, not improvements! Since the coffin and the coating of resin and linen kept the hot dry sand away from the corpse, the bodies decayed from within instead of becoming mummified. The Egyptians probably realized this after finding graves that had been disturbed by grave robbers- thieves who would hack through the resin-hardened linen with an axe in order to steal the jewels placed on the body. All that remained inside the bandages were bones... not a mummy!

The Egyptians had a huge problem. They desired elaborate burials, with linen and resin and coffins far underground- but also wanted to preserve the body as a symbol of eternal life. They figured that if the body wasn't able to live forever, neither could the parts of the soul... and that would mean no afterlife.

It was therefore absolutely necessary to prevent the dead body from decaying, since the parts of the soul still had a need for it. Three of the more well-known forms of the spirit were the ba, the ka, and the akh. It was believed that the ram-headed creator god Khnum sculpted babies and all the parts of their souls from clay.

The ba was the personality. It was shown as a bird with a human head- in particular, the head of the person to which it belonged. The ka was the life force, like our modern definition of a soul, and it looked exactly like its person. Sometimes a statue modeled after the deceased would be placed in the tomb with the mummy. These "ka statues" were something of an emergency back-up, to make sure the ka had a substitute body in case something should happen to the mummy. In addition to a recognizable body, the ka also needed food to survive. When Egyptians left food and water at the tomb, they were leaving it for the ka. The akh was represented by a type of bird called a crested ibis. At death, the akh flew to the stars to spend eternity in the heavens.

All of these forms of the spirit needed some kind of foothold for eternal life: a recognizable body in the form of a mummy. And this wouldn't be possible if the body decomposed! This is why the Egyptians wanted to preserve the dead in as life-like a state as possible. Mummification was the guarantee of eternal life.

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