Were Egyptian pyramids really rigged with traps?

by emmanuelh
Nebkheperure

Absolutely. The Egyptians held the firm belief during the Old Kingdom that in order to ensure a successful afterlife, you needed to make sure the Pharaoh's body was mummified correctly and took what he needed (boats, slaves, etc) with him to accompany him on his journey. However, such gilded finery and beautiful amulets were very valuable and therefore a common object of grave robbery.

The Egyptians realized that to make sure their Pharaoh's body and stuff stayed as intact as possible, it would need to be protected. The most common method of deterring robbers was to make it look like the grave had already been robbed. Workers would plaster over the entrance to the tomb chamber and paint the wall to make it look like the false chamber was the last, already robbed room. Additionally, large stone blocks were lowered into place as the workers left, to seal off the path to the chamber and prevent tomb robbers from being able to gain access to the innermost parts of the Pyramid.

tl;dr Yes, but not in an Indiana Jones way