Why did Egyptians mummify the dead? Ella (10)

Like many societies, the ancient Egyptians believed in an afterlife, and that when someone died they would go on to another world. But they also believed that to have an afterlife in this next world the dead person would have to re-possess their body, a body which needed to be recognisable. So this is why they mummified their dead, to preserve the body in this recognisable state.

On this basis the Egyptian afterlife would have been inhabited only by rich people, the only ones who could afford to be mummified!