The Egyptian concept of death is not like the American concept.  In the American concept humans go to heaven. Yet, in the Egyptian concept, death is the way to a better life in the after world.
They believed they could only reach their full potential after death. The Egyptians believed each person had three souls, the ka, the ba, and the akh.
The only way these could function properly was for the body to remain intact.  There were many steps after the body died. The first was priests recited prayers in a final effort to revive the body. When these failed to work the body was purified in a special shelter called the ibu. It was then taken to an embalmer's workshop. There all the organs were removed and placed in canopic jars, except for the brain which was tossed, because they didn't know what it did. It was then packed in a special salt called natron and left for forty days. When forty days had passed, the insides were filled with linen or sawdust, resin, and natron. Then the body was wrapped in linen. After 70 days the body was placed in a coffin. Furniture, statues, games, food, etc. were buried in with the coffin.