Pharaohs and powerful officials and priests were buried with servants to serve them in the afterlife, and in the grandest tombs entire ships have even been found, buried to provide swift transport to the underworld. A person could reach the afterlife through devotion to the gods and the correct preservation of their body.

Three spirits
For the Ancient Egyptians, every human had three invisible elements,

the akh or spirit

the ka or life force

and the ba, which can roughly be translated as personality or soul

The ka was believed to survive death, but require food and drink, even if this was only in pictorial form carved or painted on the tomb walls. The ba had to be united with the ka in the afterlife for the dead person to exist there as the akh - once this joining of the ka and ba had happened, the akh would then exist for eternity in the afterlife.

Burial Rituals
Protective charms and amulets were often placed by priests around the body as the linen was being applied to the mummified body. A scarab beetle amulet was placed over the heart engraved with extracts from the Book of the Dead which beseeched the heart not to betray its owner during the weighing of the heart ceremony. This was conducted by Osiris, the god of the afterlife. The heart was asked if the person had committed certain crimes during their life, and if this test was not passed, the dead could not enter the underworld.

Preserving the organs
As part of the process to preserve the body of the deceased to ensure their survival in the afterlife, the internal organs were also kept with the mummified body. It was believed that the lungs were protected by the god Hapy, the stomach by Duamutef, the intestines by Qebehsenuef and the liver by Imsety; all four gods were known as the sons of Horus. The four Canopic jars were stored together in a chest which would be placed with the sarcophagus in the tomb.

Funeral rites
The sarcophagus was coffin-shaped up to the Middle Kingdom, but later became human shaped during the New Kingdom as the belief in reincarnation for all became commonplace. The sarcophagus was mounted on a sled along with the chest of Canopic jars for the funeral procession. Bearers carrying the prized possessions of the dead such as clothes, jewellery, food, oils, perfumes, even furniture, followed the relatives dressed in pleated white linen clothes and professional mourners usually dressed in pale blue who would moan and wail on cue.

Tombs
The body and the deceased's possessions were all interred in the tomb on the west bank of the Nile; the west bank was seen as the land of the afterworld due to the sun setting in that direction, so crossing the river was symbolically seen as the body entering the land of the underworld. Rich individuals would have highly decorated tombs aping those of the pharaohs, but ordinary Ancient Egyptians would have plain tombs with little decoration. Shabti statuettes, human figurines made of clay, wood or stone, were placed in the burial chamber as it was believed they would serve the dead in the afterlife and carry out any menial work such as working in the fields instead of the deceased.

Opening of the mouth
The opening of the mouth ceremony was an important rite believed to reawaken the dead's senses in preparation for the afterlife. Performed in the tomb by priests, the body was anointed and purified before sharp objects such as knives, chisels or adzes were held to parts of the body (including the mouth) to reanimate them. Sometimes an animal's heart was used to bring 'life' back to the body.

Life preserver
A statue of the dead person was also left in the tomb by the family, in case the body deteriorated or was damaged by robbers. It was believed that the statue could replace the body in the afterlife - the Ancient Egyptians held the belief that a physical presence was necessary for the deceased's ka to exist in the afterlife.