religious doctrines, provided each Egyptian with the nec-
essary physical properties to ensure eternal bliss. The
funerary rituals were conducted with great dignity and
earnestness, in order to deliver the corpse to the ap-
pointed site, where transformations could take place. The
mortuary ceremonies secured for the Egyptians a guaran-
tee that they would not be forgotten.
Suggested Readings:David, Rosalie, and Rick Archbold.
Conversations With Mummies: New Light on the Lives of
Ancient Egyptians. New York: HarperCollins, 2000;
Hodel-Hoenes, Sigrid, and David Warburton, transl.
Life and Death in Ancient Egypt: Scenes from Private
Tombs in New Kingdom Thebes. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell
Univ. Press, 2000; Hornung, Erik, and David Lorton,
transl. The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife.Ithaca,
N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 1999; Perl, Lila, and Erika
Weihs. Mummies, Tombs, and Treasure: Secrets of Ancient
Egypt.New York: Clarion, 1990; Taylor, John H. Death
and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt. Chicago: Univ. of
Chicago Press, 2001; Thomas, Thelma K. Late Antique
Egyptian Funerary Sculpture.Princeton: Princeton Univ.
Press, 1999.
mortuary temples Religious structures used in pyra-
mid and tomb complexes as part of the royal cults, these
temples were not made for the mummified remains of the
deceased pharaohs but for the daily rituals of the royal
funerary cultic ceremonies. By the era of the Third
Dynasty (2649–2575 B.C.E.), the mortuary temple was
joined to the tombs. These cultic shrines were linked to
the pyramids and then to the VALLEY TEMPLESby cause-
ways.
AMENHOTEP I(r. 1525–1504 B.C.E.) of the Eighteenth
Dynasty was the first pharaoh to understand that such
temples drew attention to the royal tomb and promoted
robberies and the vandalism of mummies during the loot-
ing. The custom of erecting mortuary temples at a dis-
tance from the tombs was followed by Amenhotep I’s
successors. Royal mortuary cults, especially those associ-
ated with Amenhotep I and his mother, Queen ’AHMOSE
NEFERTARI, both deified, lasted well into the next dynastic
periods. The mortuary temples of the rulers of the New
Kingdom (1550–1070 B.C.E.) and that of MONTUHOTEP II
(r. 2061–2010 B.C.E.) have been examined by modern
archaeologists and cataloged.
The mortuary temple of KHAFRE (r. 2520–2494
B.C.E.) at GIZArepresents the typical architectural design
of these structures. Connected to the pyramid or standing
directly beside the monument, the temple also had a
causeway linking it to the Nile. Two pillared halls led to
an elaborate court of statues. These monuments were
placed in separate chambers. Storerooms, shrines, and a
chapel completed the temple design. A FALSE DOOR, an
offering table, and other ritual materials were discovered
in the chapel.
Mound of the Pharaohs This is the modern name for
the ruins of the ancient city of BUTO, called Tell el-Fara’un
in Arabic. This site had profound connections with the
first eras of dynastic Egypt.mummies See MORTUARY RITUALS.mummy caches The deposits of royal and court mum-
mies discovered in 1881 and 1898, and the deposit of
priestly remains found in 1830, 1858, and 1891, these
mummies, rewrapped and reburied because of vandalism
and tomb robberies, were placed in secure sites in the
Twenty-first Dynasty (1070–945 B.C.E.) or in later eras.
The high priests of AMUNin THEBESundertook this task
out of piety and respect for the pharaonic ancestors of
Egypt.
The mummies discovered in a tomb in DEIR EL-BAHRI,
on the western shore of Thebes in 1881, possibly were
originally stored in the tomb of Queen ’AHMOSE-IN-HAPI
or Queen IPUT, an unknown Middle Kingdom queen.
They were some of the greatest pharaohs of Egyptian his-
tory. An inscription declares that they were reburied there
in “the twentieth day of the fourth day of winter in the
tenth year of PINUDJEM(1), the High Priest of AMUN.”256 mortuary templesThe golden mortuary mask of King Tut’ankhamun
Archive.)