It strikes me that Egyptians during the times of the Pharaohs really did not believe that life was "over" when death came.At least not for the rulers!
The Pharaoh Cheops built a magnificent monument, in the form of the Great Pyramid at Giza, but this was not solely to memorialize his greatness during his term of life. He fully expected to return to the East Bank of the Nile, and to sail there on the fully preserved "solar" boat that he hid, quite successfully, to one side of the Pyramid. The story of its discovery (and subsequent restoration) is itself a story worth knowing.
The boat is called a "solar" boat because it is expected to carry the Pharaoh into the sunlight, into the East.
This belief in the physical reality of a life after death continues. Our guide, Noha, is a devout Muslim, with somewhat of an evangelistic bent. She made clear that what we do in this life is important, really, because of what it will mean in the next.
The world view of the Pharaohs is alive today.
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