Waking eternity
Waking Eternity By Lindsay Kociuba Each day more and more of histories most precious possessions are being tainted and destroyed at the hands of the greedy. "Respect the faith of others," my mother always told me when I was a little girl, "their beliefs are just as important as your own." To this day I can remember learning about all the different religions of the world and how each was unique in its own way. But the most interesting to me of all when I was a child were the beliefs shared by the Ancient Egyptians. They had a complex polytheistic religion that was built on the belief in the after-life, and its importance. Around 5,000 years ago the great pharaohs and kings of the time spent their lives building elaborate tombs filled with hieroglyphic prayers and stories depicting their journey to the after-life, where they would spend eternity. Amongst the prayers were stories and curses meant to ward off intruders and thieves that might enter the tomb. But why was the preservation of the dead so important to the ancient Egyptians? For the same reason that so many different artifacts were placed into the tomb after death. The Egyptians believed that the body, as well as the various tools placed in the grave, could be used by the deceased in the after-life (Ancient Egypt, An illustrated reference to the myths, religions, pyramids and temples of the land of the pharaohs).