The pharaohs of ancient Egypt were buried alongside their belongings. They were very keen to protect their treasure, and it was important to protect it from people who would dig it after the bodies went moldy. The idea of booby traps and puzzles was initiated in the games and Hollywood.
It was common for their very own families and the successors of the pharaohs to steal their afterlife retirement plan. But the pharaoh’s power was absolute, and they could do pretty much everything and anything they pleased to do. So, they would have the tombs of their ancestors looted to reuse the treasure. In some cases, the casket in which they were buried. For the same reason, they used to dump the mummies or have them removed unceremoniously and reuse the container.
Back in times, this thing only happened in the time of the hardships. The Egyptian nobility thought that nothing was rummaging the final resting place of their beloved ancestors, and it was their stuff just lying there.
What happened when an individual raided the tomb?
It was a perk to be part of the Egyptian nobility. If one of the nobility raided the tomb, it was tolerable. But if an individual who is not directly related to the deceased and raids the tomb that is the ancestral property of the nobility, then the individual will have to face harsh penalties. Punishments for raiding a tomb included public flogging to a brutal death, depending on how important the deceased was.
The death penalty given to thieves included burning them alive, which was a common practice in those times. The reason behind condemning the thief in such a manner was the belief that if no remains of a body are left after death, one will not enter an afterlife. Other forms of execution were impalement, which is believed to tie the body of the deceased at one place, or decapitation meant so the thief could not enter the afterlife. It was a great belief for Egyptians.
Booby traps is a myth
Tomb raiding was a common practice in ancient times, all levels of security and every part of the society it is the one who constructed the tomb, and the one responsible for burial all took part in the robbery. This was done as the architect of the tomb had many risky installations. Shaft, sliding portcullis blocks, and sand-filled chambers have been overdone by Hollywood to make them look like the booby traps. Booby traps are a total myth!
Actual experts might have written that the tomb had sharp wires on heights and deadly snakes in there. All these things just exist in writing and have no basis in reality. The only reality is that huge obstacles were placed in the way of the treasure to prevent thieves from raiding the tomb. Sometimes there were empty chambers, and the real chamber was walled-up someplace else in the architecture.
Take away
The existence of the very complicates parts of architecture has been exaggerated and claimed to be booby traps. The truth is these unique architectural installations are for thieves, and it helped prevent or mislead a thief to loot/raid the tomb for its treasure.
