Ancient Egyptians believed in an afterlife. They thought that a person could continue to live if an embalmer mummified the body by drying and preserving it with salts. Elaborate coffins and sarcophagi were made to hold the mummified bodies of important people after their deaths.

The sarcophagus shown here is decorated with images from the Egyptian "Book of the Dead." This book was buried with the body and contained instructions, spells and passwords. It helped the deceased pass a series of tests so he or she could pass into the next life.

 

The test shown here is called the "Weighing of the Heart." In this trial, the heart of the dead person was weighed against the feather of truth. Anubis, the jackal-headed god of embalming, has put the heart on one side of the scale and the feather of truth on the other. The heart and feather had to balance perfectly on the scale for the soul to enter the underworld. If they did not balance, this meant the person made too many mistakes while alive. If the test was passed, the ancient Egyptians believed that the deceased was "true of voice," meaning that he or she was a good person.