adding to the endowments of the temples, was the embodiment of secular
and of religious authority.

Egyptians of the period believed that death was not an end, but a
transition. They also believed that those who passed through the death
process would have many of the needs and wants associated with life on
the Earth. Furthermore they believed that in the course of their future
existence those who had died would again inhabit the bodies that they
had during their previous existences on Earth. Following out these
beliefs the Egyptians put into their tombs a full assortment of the
food, clothing, implements and instruments which they had used during
their Earth life. They also embalmed the bodies of their dead with the
utmost care and buried them in carefully hidden tombs where they would
be found by their former users and occupied for the Day of Judgment.

Holding such views, preparation for the phase of life subsequent to
death was a chief object of the early Egyptian rulers and their
subjects. One of the preoccupations of each new occupant of the throne
was the selection of his burial place. Early in his reign he began the
construction of suitable quarters for the reception of his embalmed
body. The great pyramids were such tombs. Other monarchs constructed
rock-hewn chambers for the reception of their bodies. In these chambers
in addition to a room for a sarcophagus were associated rooms in which
every imaginable need of the dead was stored: food, clothing, furniture,
jewelry, weapons.

Adjacent to the royal tomb favored nobles received permission to build
their own tombs, similarly equipped but on a smaller, less grandiose
scale than that of the pharaoh. By this means the courtiers who had
attended the pharaoh in his life-time would be at hand to perform