For the people of ancient Egypt, life on Earth was only a brief period of time, with true, eternal life only beginning after death. That is why they called the tombs "the beautiful palace of eternity", where it was believed that one would not be alone, and where it was deeply believed that all family members and relatives would be reunited in the next world. People were likely to be stronger when they died than when they lived on earth. They were closer to the gods, able to change their forms and to live in all parts of the world: in heaven, in the realm of the dead or in other worldly spaces. Life in the afterlife was only possible if the body of the deceased was mummified after death so that it did not decay, and only then could the bird Baa in the tomb merge with the mummy and the Kaa, the life force, and find its way to the deceased. The mummy was placed in the tomb along with the mummy, along with all kinds of things that the ruler would need in his later life: a chariot, weapons, furniture, statues, lamps, utensils, clothes, jewellery, oil pans, musical instruments, writing utensils, and many other things... On the other side, people wanted to live the same way as here on Earth. Some of these items were gilded or made of pure gold, which is why graves were plundered countless times and why burial sites were eventually located as far away from inhabited areas as possible.

Egypt did not have pyramids in the first two dynasties, so where were the rulers buried? Their burial places were large rectangular pits on which they built a low hill or a building of some kind. On the outside of the superstructure, there were many niches, and the tomb was in the centre of the pit. In this abode of eternity, there were many rooms with food supplies, and it was not uncommon for a bath to be installed in these rooms.

In the New Kingdom, after the end of the pyramid-building period, the burial place of the pharaohs moved from Memphis to Thebes (now Luxor). On the west bank of the Nile, in a remote desert valley, the tombs of the rulers were carved out of the rock, starting with a staircase and then a long passage leading diagonally downwards, which later widened to a chamber. Then a long series of corridors and rooms, and deep in the middle of the hill, the sarcophagus and eternal resting place. Some of these tombs are up to 200 metres long and lead deep into the rock, with walls and ceilings decorated with religious scenes. Nowadays, the site is known as the 'Valley of the Kings or the Rulers'. The remains of 18 to 20 dynasties - 64 rulers - rest in this valley. In the other "Valley of the Queens", many of the wives and princes of the pharaohs were once buried.

The Temple of the Dead stood next to the tomb of the kings in both the Old and Middle Kingdom, but later they were built far away from the fertile land, on the edges of deserts and valleys. There were only a few rooms left to honour the ruler by bringing him food in the afterlife. Most of the former temple was dedicated to the god Amun.