THE Egyptians believed that when they died， their suls stayed near by their bdies. S when a persn died， they put in the tmb with him all srtsf things that he had used in daily life-things t eat and drink， furniture and dishes， tys and games. They thught the sul wuld return t itswn bdy at the dayf judgment. They wanted their bdies t be kept frm decaying until judgment day， inrder that the sul might then have a bdy t return t. S they pickled the bdiesf the dead by saking them in a mineral called natrn and wrapping them rund and rund and rund with a clth like a bandage. A dead bdy pickled in this way is called a mummy， and after thusandsf years the mummiesf the Egyptians may still be seen. Mstf them are nt， hwever， in the tmbs where they were at first placed. They have been mved away and put in museums， and we may see them there nw. Althugh they are yellw and dried up， they still lk likeLittleld men All skin and bnes.
At firstnly kingsr imprtant peplef the highest classes were made mummies， but after a while all the classes， except perhaps the lwest， wereTutankhamen"s tmb shwing fds preserved ( 显示存放有食物的图坦卡蒙墓 )treated in the same way. Sacred animals frm beetles t cws were als made int mummies.
When an Egyptian died， his friends heaped up a few stnesver his bdy just t cver it up decently and keep it frm being stlenr destryed by thse wild animals that fedn dead bdies. But a kingr a rich man wanted a bigger pilef stnesver his bdy than justrdinary peple had. T make sure that his pile wuld be big enugh， a king built it fr himself befre he died. Each king tried t make his pile larger than anyne else"s until at last the pilef stnes became s big it was a hillf rcks and called a pyramid. The pyramids therefre were tmbsf the kings， wh built them while they were alive， t be mnuments t themselves when they were dead. In fact a king was much mre interested in building a hme fr his dead bdy than he was in a hme fr his live bdy. S， insteadf palaces， kings built pyramids. There are manyf these pyramids built alng the bankf the Nile， and mstf them were built， we think， just after 3000 B.C.
In Nubia， up the Nile farther suth in Africa， in what is nw the mdern natinf Sudan， kings als built pyramids fr themselves. This is nt surprising since Egyptians and Nubians shared manyf the same religius beliefs.
When a building is being put up nwadays， men use derricks and cranes and engines t haul and raise heavy stnes and beams. But the Egyptians had n such machinery， and thugh they used huge stnes t build the pyramids， they had t drag these stnes fr many miles and raise them int place simply by pushing and pulling them. The three biggestf all the pyramids are near the cityf Cair. The largestnef them， which is called the Great Pyramid， was built by a king named Cheps. That name is prnunced just like KEYps. Here is his date：
Cheps……………………………2900 B.C.
It is said thatne hundred thusand men wrked twenty years t build his pyramid. It isnef the largest buildings in the wrld， and smef the blcksf stne themselves are as big as a small huse. I have been t the tpf it， and it is like climbing a steep muntain with rcky sides. I have als been far inside t the cave-like rm in the center where Cheps"s mummy was placed. There is nthing in there nw， hwever， except bats that fly abut in the darkness， fr the mummy has disappeared-been stlen， perhaps.
Near the Pyramidf Cheps is the Sphinx. It is a huge statuef a lin with a man"s head. Althugh it is big， it was carvedutfne single rck. The Sphinx is a statuef the gdf the mrning， and the head is thatfnef the Egyptian pharahs wh built a pyramid near thatf Cheps. The desert sand has cveredthe paws and mstf the bdy. Thugh the sand has been dug away frm time t time， the wind quickly cvers the bdy with sand again.
Cheps building his pyramid ( 建造金字塔的胡夫 )The Egyptians carvedther large statuesf men and wmenutf rck. These figures are usually many times bigger than life-size， and sitr stand stiffly erect with bth feet flatn the grund and hands clse t the bdy in the psitin sme children take when they sit fr their phtgraph.
They built huge huses fr their gds. These were called temples. These temples had gigantic-that"s the way it is spelled， thugh it means giant-ic- clumns and pillars.rdinary peple standing beside them lk like dwarfs.
Here isnef these temples， and yu can see hw different it is frm a church.
They decrated their temples and pyramids， and the cases in which the mummies were put， with paintings. They did nt try t make these paintings lk real， hwever. Fr example， when they wanted t make a picturef water， they simply made zigzag lines t represent waves and clred them blue-green. When they wanted t draw a rwf men behind a rw in frnt， they put thse in backn tpf thse in frnt. T shw that a man was a king， they made himEgyptian Temple ( 埃及的神庙 )larger than thether men in the picture.
The Egyptians used bright clrs in their pictures. They used a ltf red， yellw， and brwn. Yu can see in their pictures that sme peple had dark skin and sme had light tan skin. At first peple frm suthern Egypt had darker skin， and peple frm near the Mediterranean had lighter skin.ver the years， peple mved allver Egypt and then yu culd n lnger tell where a persn came frm by the clrf hisr her skin.
【中文阅读】
古埃及人相信人死后，灵魂仍然在死者身边停留，所以一旦有人死去，他们就 把他生前日常用的各种东西全都和他一起放进坟墓里--吃的、喝的、家具、碗碟、 玩具、游戏用品，等等。他们认为灵魂在最后的审判日那一天，还会回到身体里去。 他们希望尸体在审判日到来之前保存好不会腐烂，好让灵魂到时有个归属。所以， 他们将死者的尸体浸泡在一种叫"泡碱"的矿物质里，然后用绷带一样的布把尸体 一圈一圈又一圈地包裹起来。用这种方法处理过的尸体就是"木乃伊"，几千年后人 们还可以看到这些埃及人的木乃伊。不过，他们中大多数已不在最初被安放的陵墓 里了。他们已经被搬走放进博物馆里，我们现在可以去那儿参观。尽管木乃伊又黄 又干，但是看上去仍然还像小小老头儿 瘦得皮包骨。
开始，只有法老和上等阶级的重要人物才被做成木乃伊，但是没多久，各个等 级的人都受到同样的待遇，也许只有最低等级的人除外吧。甚至那些神圣的动物， 从甲虫到母牛也都被制成了木乃伊。
埃及人死后，他的朋友会将石头堆放在他的尸体上，只是为了把尸体体面地掩 盖起来，以免被偷或被食尸动物吃掉。可是，法老或富人就希望堆放在尸体上的石 头堆能比普通人的更大。为了确保足够大，法老在生前就开始建造。每一位法老都 设法把自己的石堆造得比别人的大，这样到最后石头堆大得就像石头山，人们称之 为"金字塔"。因此，金字塔就是法老的陵墓，法老生前就开始建造，死后作为自己 的纪念碑。实际上，比起给自己建造居住的宫殿，法老更热衷于给死后的尸体筑坟 修墓。因此，法老们不造宫殿，却建金字塔。在尼罗河的沿岸建造了很多这样的金 字塔，我们认为它们中大多数建于公元前 3000 年以后。
在非洲尼罗河南边的努比亚，也就是今天的苏丹，国王们也为自己建造了金字塔。这不奇怪，因为埃及人和努比亚人有很多相同的宗教信仰。 今天建造房屋，人们要用起重机、吊车和发动机来拖运、起吊巨大的石头和大梁，可是，古埃及人并没有这样的机械，而且尽管他们用巨大的石块建金字塔，但 是，他们必须先将石头从好多里以外拖来，再抬到需要的位置，全靠众人一起推和 拉。这些金字塔中最大的三座都靠近开罗，其中最大的叫"大金字塔"，是由一位叫 胡夫的法老建造的。这是他生活的年代：
胡夫……………………………公元前 2900 年
据说，十万人花了二十年的时间才建成他的金字塔。这座金字塔是世界上最大 的建筑物之一，有些石块本身就像一座小房子那么大。我曾经上到它的顶端，上去 的过程就像是爬一座陡峭的山崖。我还曾经深入到金字塔中心，走进像山洞一样的 房间，里面曾经安放着胡夫的木乃伊。然而，现在除了黑暗中飞来飞去的蝙蝠，什 么都没有了，因为那具木乃伊已经消失了--可能是被盗了。
在胡夫金字塔的近旁就是斯芬克斯。这是一个巨大的狮身人面雕像。别看它如 此巨大，却是用一整块石头雕刻而成的。斯芬克斯是早晨之神，雕像的头是按一位 法老的样子雕成的，他在胡夫金字塔附近建造了自己的金字塔。沙漠里的风沙掩盖 了雕像的爪子和大半个身体。尽管人们不时地将沙子清走，但是风很快又会吹起沙 子将它的身体埋住。
古埃及人用岩石还雕刻了其他巨大的男女雕像。这些雕像比真人的尺寸大上好 多倍，姿态或坐或站，双脚都平放在地上，手紧贴身子，就像有些孩子坐着等待照 相时拘谨的样子。
他们为他们的神建造了巨大的房子，叫做神庙。这些神庙有些非常巨大。这些 庙宇有巨大的石柱和石墩。普通人站在旁边看上去就像侏儒一样矮小。
下图是其中一座神庙（参见第 37 页图），你能看出它和教堂多么不同吧。 他们用各种图画装饰神庙、金字塔和存放木乃伊的棺木，但是，他们并不把图画画得很逼真。举例说，如果想画水，他们就只画几条曲折的线代表波浪，再将它 们涂成蓝绿色。如果他们想画站在一排人后面的另一排人，他们就把站在后排的人 画在前排人的上方。为了表示某个人是国王，他们就将他画得比画中其他人大些。
古埃及人在绘画中使用鲜亮的颜色，他们使用大量的红色、黄色和棕色。在他 们的画中，你能看到有些人是黑皮肤，而有些人则是浅褐色的皮肤。最初，来自埃 及南部的人皮肤颜色较黑，而靠近地中海沿岸的人皮肤颜色较浅。随着岁月的流逝， 人们迁徙到埃及各地，你再也无法从肤色上看出一个埃及人到底来自何处。
