NOVA

(light dramatic music) - [Narrator] The Ancient Egyptians invested vast amounts of wealth and energy preparing for life after death.

- Their belief of the afterlife built Egypt.

(light dramatic music continues) That belief made the Egyptian to build pyramids, tombs, and thimbles.

- [Narrator] They believe that life continued after death and the tomb was considered the house for eternity.

For those who could afford it, the mummified body would have laid to rest inside beautifully decorated tombs.

- There's the popular belief that the Ancient Egyptians were obsessed by death and that they were only caring about the life in another world.

This is of course, definitely not the case.

The Egyptians were people like us, so they wanted to live.

(serene inspiring music) Mortuary rituals is actually something that helps the living to overcome their sorrow, their grief.

(serene inspiring music continues) What you find in tombs tells you so much about society and about the living.

(serene inspiring music continues)