Who is ka in ancient egypt

They believed the Ka did not actually eat these paintings, but rather absorbed the life giving force they represented, so the Ka could live forever. The ancient Egyptians believed that your soul split into two parts after you died. One part, the Ba, flew off every morning to keep watch over your living family. The other part, the Ka, flew happily off to enjoy life in the Land of Two Fields.

At night, both the Ba and the Ka returned home to your tomb to rest up for the next heavenly day. Name: If something happened to your preserved body, or if your Name was not written down somewhere, the Ba and the Ka would get lost. They would not be able to find their way home to your tomb. You would disappear. You would not be able to watch over your family or to enjoy your afterlife.

That's why the use of a cartouche was so popular. A cartouche is nothing more than a name plate attached to your coffin. A cartouche made it easy for your Ba and Ka to find their way home. That's also why grave robbing and the destruction of mummies to get at the treasures hidden inside the folds of wrapping was such a vile crime in ancient Egypt.

Grave goods could be replaced. But there was nothing your family could do if robbers disturbed your preserved body. The ancient Egyptians believed you would be lost forever. There was no worse crime. Shadow: The 5th part, the shadow, was the shadow of a body reflected by the sun. In ancient Egypt, each shadow was considered powerful. Actually, pretty much anything that offered shade from the sun was considered powerful.

Your shadow was considered your protection, rather like a body guard. Interactive Quiz about Ancient Egypt with answers. The Nile River. Gifts of the Nile. Boats and Square Sails. Two Lands, Unification, King Menes. The Three Kingdoms. Hieroglyphics, Rosette Stone. Government Officials. The ka was represented as a pair of open arms, held upwards.

These arms symbolized the transmittance of the ka force from father to son, god to man, king to man. This transmittance was also expressed in personal names which emphasized the continuity of the ka in different generations, for example 'my ka repeats itself'. When a ka was transmitted from god to god or from god to man, it was the 'indwelling' of a divine force in a different god or person that was meant. Sometimes several kas are referred to; the creator gods and the king could have multiple kas, but so too could ordinary people.

The royal Ka symbolized a pharaoh's right to rule, a universal force that passed from one pharaoh to the next. Ba is represented as a human-headed bird that leaves the body when a person dies. The face of Ba was the exact likeness of that of the deceased person. Akh is the spirit of Re , which encapsulates the concept of light - the transfigured spirit of a person that becomes one with light after death.