People's lives in ancient Egypt were shaped by their beliefs. They knew that life on earth was limited, but believed in an everlasting life after death. Over the 6,000 years of ancient Egyptian culture, ideas about the Afterlife became more complex. The Egyptians came to believe that they would live forever in another Egypt, which lay in the far west.

They hoped to enjoy the same kind of life they had known when they were alive, or even better.

The ancient Egyptians believed that after death the ka (part of the spirit of a dead person) lived on and returned to the body and tomb to eat and drink.

If the ka could not find its body, it would go hungry and the dead person might lose their eternal life.

People buried food and drink, to feed the ka, and objects, needed for the Afterlife, with the dead. These objects could be belongings they had used when they were alive, or something made especially for burial that would become real when the dead person needed them.

Some people had tombs filled with possessions. Some had only a loaf of bread and a jar of beer. Some people were buried with nothing.