Mummies & Pyramids

Usborne Discovery

by Sam Taplin

An exploration of the mysterious world of mummies and pyramids, and the insights they give into ancient civilization. It explains the scientific techniques used to examine mummies and how mummies have been viewed throughout history. Links are given to related Web sites for further information.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Egypt, Science

47 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Sam Taplin grew up in a beautiful valley in Yorkshire, where he dreamed of being a writer, and after three years reading other people's books at university he started writing his own. He's been doing it ever since. When he's not writing about lonely rabbits or inquisitive bears, he likes doing card tricks, writing songs and playing long games of chess by the fire.

Reviews

[Divisha Daswani · Rating 4 out of 5]

The wonderful book Mummies and Pyramids was written by Sam Taplin, the book is based on the ancient history all about mummies and pyramids. The book has all the information to things such as making mummies, coffins and cases, houses of eternity, myths and movies, unwrapping a mummy, etc. “A mummy is a preserved dead body” ( Taplin 4). Mummies were named mummies because people thought that Egyptians used a black and sticky substance with the name bitumen, which preserved the dead body. The word used in Arabic is “mummiya” which then the word “mummy” was made. It took Egyptians seventy days to mummify or embalm a body. Embalming was a job for embalmers which involved making the body look presentable by removing guts and other body parts. A essential thing they needed to do was push a sharp need through the nose, and into the brain. This caused the brain to break and the brain was able to be pulled out, through the nose. Once the mummy was all bandaged, they would place a mask on their face to be able to recognize the person in their afterlife. About 4,000 years ago, Egyptians started to paint the inside and out of the coffin, with object the dead person might need in their afterlife. “The outermost coffin of a pharaoh was a big stone box called a sarcophagus.” (Taplin 11) After burying many mummies, many wealthy mummy hunters would wanted to find mummies to either give them to museums or take them home as a souvenir. Pyramids were one of the most famous ancient things invented; they also had many different meanings. “Early kings believed they would join particular constellations (groups of stars) in the afterlife. Texts written on later pyramids describe step pyramids as stepladders to the stars.” (Taplin 18) About 2,500 years ago, the sun God had re become very important. Pyramids were now though of colossal ramps, or sunbeams made out of stone. It was believed that the dead king’s soul would climb up the ramps and re meet in the sky. As one can see, the book Mummies and Pyramids is a wonderful book that explain why how, and when mummies and pyramids were created, and their very important meanings.

Explain why the topic of this book is important?
The topic of this book is important because it shows how a part of our history buried their long lost people, and what beliefs they had behind certain famous building and artifacts. This topic is also important for people who would like to know the differences between the ways people burry humans, and how they were buried thousands of years ago. This subject is also an important topic for people to understand if there is a body buried underground, and why certain things like pyramids were created.

Which photograph was your favorite, and why?

My favorite photograph was a photograph in page 31, the picture is of a mummy. The mummy is a mummy f the actor Christopher Lee of 1959 in the film “The Mummy”. The photograph is very detailed as to how they bandaged it, and how they had a mask on the face to recognize the dead person’s face.

How do you think the author feels about the topic? Explain.

In my opinion, I think that the author is very intrigues by this topic; he thinks it’s very important. The author must also have interests in learning about mummies and pyramids, as well as writing about it. I think the author thinks its important information that is worth being put into an entire book about the subject.
Throughout reading this book, I have discovered why I have chosen it, and who I would think would enjoy this book as much as I did. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in history from the past, and would like to learn the stories of the Egyptians behind their beliefs on making mummies. I would also recommend this book to someone who enjoys the topic of ancient Egypt, and is intrigued in ancient traditions and beliefs of Egyptians. This book is a very well written book with a very deep look inside how most of the things were made, and fun facts to their meaning behind it. As one can see, I would recommend this to anyone who likes nonfiction books and history, and why.

[Achraf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mummies & Pyramids Essay
By: Achraf

The striking non-fiction story, ‘Mummies and Pyramids,’ is a wonder of a book written by Sam Taplin. First of all, this story mainly focuses on how mummies and pyramids were created and how the Ancient Egypt civilization grew to have these things. To begin with, a mummy is a preserved dead body of a person or animal. What is special about a mummy is that they don’t die. The Ancient Egyptians believed that they continued living in another world of their own. As for scientists, Pyramids and Mummies tell us, humans, a lot about life in Ancient Egypt. There are many different kind of coffin cases. For instance, early coffins were simply rectangular shaped while the later ones were shaped like people. In my perspective, Coffins was a whole new level of ‘technology’ that was clever for burying the dead. Later on, coffins were sealed in stone. This was a big step forward for the Egyptians due to the fact the dead would be safe in their sealed coffin case. However, soon funerals and grave goods were created. An example of a grave good would be a small modeled servants that would look after them, prepare food, keep animals, and grow crops in the next world (Remember, these servants aren’t real, they are statues). Therefore, dead people were expected to continue living a normal life with the variety of grave goods. Lastly, around 4,500 years ago, and architect named Imhotep invented a new type of tomb for the Pharaoh Zoser. This was of course, the pyramids and soon after, all kings were buried inside the towering pyramids. Furthermore, building a pyramid was an incredibly difficult job. This job was done step by step, and to complete a full big pyramid, it could take over 20 years. One of the most famous pyramids are the ‘Pyramids of Giza’. There were three types: A big one for Pharaoh Khufu, A smaller one for Pharaoh Khafre, and a small one for Pharaoh Menkaure. As for today, these pyramids are still living at their height. As one can see, Mummies and Pyramids were important for the Ancient Egyptians .

This marvelous non-fiction story greeted me with three questions that the readers and I were able to answer. First, the first question I thought about was:
‘Which photograph was my favorite and Why?’
Well, during the reading of this story, I experienced many revolting pictures such as dead mummies laying in tombs. However, my favorite is the photograph of the Pyramids of Giza during the night. It is a real nice view looking at how the past changed to the present.
Next, the second question I answered was:
‘Is there another title you could give this book? Why is it a good title?’
If I were to choose a title, I would go for, ‘The Generations of Ancient Egypt.’ This title is a good title because it clearly proves to the reader, that by the cover, this book will talk about how Ancient Egypt developed smart ideas to become what it is now.
Lastly, the final question I thought about was:
‘What questions do you still have about this topic?’
I have two questions that I have about this topic.
-What is it like in the ‘other world’ that mummies live in?
-Is is possible to climb up one of the Pyramids of Giza?
As one can see, these were the three main questions that I answered, proudly.

This incredible story would be recommended to many kinds of people who adore nonfiction. First, I would recommend this book to people who like history and would like to know more about Mummies and Pyramids. I would highly recommend it to students who do not know much about Egypt and they want to know more. If not, do not read this book, just keep it standing in the library shelf. Lastly, this book is for 6th graders and higher. For the higher, smarter students like 7th or 8th graders, this book would not be a book for you, considering it would kind of be easy to read. Overall, the 6th graders are able to read this book easily and write an essay about it. As one can see, this book would be recommended to many people who like nonfiction.

[Ibrahim · Rating 5 out of 5]

The non-fiction book Mummies and Pyramids was written by the famous author Sam Taplin. This outstanding book talks about how mummies and pyramids were created and how they were important to Ancient Egypt’s civilization. This book also give details about techniques used to study mummies and how mummies have been viewed during the past. Ancient Egypt was a stretching country along the Nile River. Many years ago Egyptians had created one of the world’s first civilizations. But they were particularly famous for two reasons: they preserved dead people as mummies and they built huge pyramids as tombs. A mummy is a conserved dead body. Mummification was very important to the ancient Egyptians because they thought that dead people continued living in another world, the afterlife, and they believed that their spirit needed the dead body in order to take pleasure in the world. The pyramids were built as tombs for the mummies of Egyptians kings or pharaohs. The Egyptians believed in an afterlife. This means that they was a world beyond this one where people go when they die. They were very skilled and dedicated mummy makers in history. Preserving the dead was important for their culture. There were many steps to preserve the dead. First, a hole was made in the body and the embalmers took their external organs except for the heart. Then the hole was stuffed with linen and the body was then dried out. After forty days the body was wrapped in linen bandages. When the mummy was finished a mask was placed over the bandaged face so that the person could be recognized in the afterlife. The book Mummies and Pyramids involves descriptions, informational texts, and amazing facts that makes the reader explore the mysterious world of Ancient Egypt.


People really know little things about old civilizations of Morocco before Islam. The civilization that dates back to the very beginning of the Islamic era is totally different from that of Ancient Egyptians. Its mainly different from a religious point of view that profits don’t preserve any mummies. The tombs of the leaders of Al Idrissids, Al morawid for example are visited by people from all over the world. Today in Morocco, there are no mummies nor pyramids, because the Ancient Egyptian’s religion is different from Islam’s, and Islam doesn’t believe in the afterlife. “The Egyptians imagined a heaven ruled by a god called Osiris. The kingdom of Osiris was a beautiful sunny land called the Fields of Reeds.” (Taplin, 6). The civilization of Ancient Egypt is known for its astonishing achievements in a whole variety of fields, including art and architecture, engineering, medicine and statecraft. The ancient Egyptians were also skilled at making pyramids, which was viewed all around the world. “No one had ever made such an enormous building (pyramids) before, and the Great Pyramid at Giza became one of the legendary wonders of the ancient world”. (Taplin, 4). The pyramids were miracles of architecture and organization. Without cranes, drills, or machines of any kind, the Egyptians created some of the largest stone buildings ever. They pyramid were built by free man. They were paid by the pharaohs, and they were proud to be part of such an amazing achievement.


I would recommend this outstanding book, to all history teachers, middle school students, and especially to the ones who love history, mummies, and pyramids. My friend Nasser-Allah will be highly interested in this book, since he loves mummies and old buildings, such as pyramids. This book gives facts and interesting information about how mummies were made, and how it affects Ancient Egyptians civilization.

[Silme · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books was mostly about mummies, and how they were created. It also talked about special mummies such as kings. Natural mummies were also discussed, and in ancient Egypt bodies buried in the sand were naturally mummified, which may have led to the process of mummification. It also discussed unwrapping mummies.
Tombs were also discussed, including the pyramids.

[Whitney · Rating 3 out of 5]

As far as nonfiction books go, this one is pretty good. It's an Usborne Discovery internet-linked book. Every couple of pages, it gives you the Usborne website which is really easy to use and links to high quality websites.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool. But a little creepy.