Getting a body ready for eternal life takes time. Priests and
embalmers during the 18th Dynasty (c. 1550-1319 B.C.)
generally spent 70 days preparing a pharaoh for
burial—from the first cleansing of the corpse through
the final rites before the tomb. Of course, the bodies of the
poor didn't get such royal treatment, and techniques of
mummification varied over the 3,000 years it was practiced. In
this audio slide show, Egyptologist Salima Ikram, one of the
world's foremost experts on mummification, guides us through
the steps of a "classic" mummification like those performed on
18th-Dynasty pharaohs. To launch the
audio slide show, click on the image at left.—Susan K. Lewis and David Levin
