let's crack open the sarcophagus and get
this
unwrapped welcome to watch mojo and
today we're counting down our picks for
the top 10
real mummies for this list we're looking
at the most famous human bodies to ever
be preserved after death through either
natural or
artificial means number 10
the beauty of chaohu she almost seems to
be sleeping
the beauty of chowhoo also known as the
beauty of la lan
is just one of over 160 mummies
discovered in china's arid tarim basin
some buried in upside-down boats with a
forest of gigantic poles rising from the
prows
although the beauty of chowhoo is around
4000 years old
the dry desert heat has preserved even
her auburn hair
many of the other mummies also have
distinctly caucasian features
leading to much speculation about their
origin and the early movements of people
along the silk road
number 9. rosalia lombardo in 1918
a broken-hearted father approached
embalmer alfredo salafia in palermo
sicily
the man's almost two-year-old daughter
had just died of pneumonia
selafia agreed to embalm the girl and
she was placed in a glass casket in the
capuchin catacombs of palermo
while skeptics have claimed the mummy is
really made of wax x-ray and mri scans
show otherwise
her small body continues to lie at rest
in the catacombs
so lifelike it sometimes seems to peer
out at visitors
number eight hatshepsut she's been
called the queen who would be king
this female pharaoh ordered statues to
depict her with bulging muscles and a
false beard
she became queen after marrying her
half-brother futmoza ii
then regent after his death before
assuming the full powers of pharaoh
despite a successful reign many of her
statues were later destroyed
possibly by her son or grandson
discovered in 1903 by real-life indiana
jones howard carter
her 3 500 year old body was identified
in 2007 thanks to a molar tooth
that fit into her mouth like a glass
slipper onto a slender foot
and therefore that tooth exactly fit
with the mummy that we found in kv-60
number seven
jeremy bentham this might be the
weirdest mummy on the list
upon his death in 1832 english
philosopher and founder of modern
utilitarianism jeremy bentham left very
specific instructions
first he wanted to be publicly dissected
by his friends
next he wanted his skeleton to be
dressed up in his clothes and stuffed
full of hay
because being buried is boring he also
requested that his head be mummified
using traditional maori techniques
as part of turning his body into an auto
icon unfortunately this did not go as
planned
so a wax head was used instead that
didn't stop students from stealing the
real head in 1975
and ransoming it back for 100 pounds
though only 10 pounds was paid by
university college london where it was
being displayed
number six tollandman when danish woman
greta highgord stumbled over a corpse as
she cut pete with her family in 1950
she thought she'd unearthed a recent
murder victim but in fact tollandman as
he became known
had died roughly 2200 years earlier
his skin is blackened but remarkably
preserved
down to crease lines around his eyes
scholars believe he was hung as part of
a ritual human sacrifice
though that is still debatable human
remains have been found
in peat bogs throughout northern europe
preserved by low temperatures
lack of oxygen and acid in the peat
which wards off bacteria
number 5. leochon in 1990
a very old buddha statue underwent
restoration
and experts were shocked to discover
human remains within
in 2015 a ct scan of the artifact
revealed the 1 000 year old mummified
remains of a buddhist monk
seated in a lotus position his organs
had been replaced by scraps of paper
printed with ancient chinese characters
text inside identified him as leochuan
his mummified remains could be an
instance of sokshin butsu
the buddhist practice of living
mummification which involves gradual
starvation that eliminates liquids and
fats from the body
number four children of yuriako
five hundred years ago three incan
children were left to die
near the summit of the volcano yuliaco
on the border of argentina and chile
perfectly preserved by the cold the
frozen bodies were rediscovered in 1999.
all had been drugged using coca leaves
and mae's beer
researchers believe the oldest a girl in
her early teens
was a sun virgin chosen to serve as a
ritual sacrifice
with her was her younger half-sister
whose body had been struck by lightning
after death
and an unrelated bound boy with blood
and vomit on his clothes
signs he may have put up a struggle
number 3
itsy the german tourists who stumbled
over its remains thought they'd found
the body of some poor mountaineer
but the iceman actually died over 5000
years ago
frozen in the ice form millennia he
eventually began to thaw out
he was around 45 when he was killed
probably from a blow to the head
and or the arrow lodged in his shoulder
but he went down
fighting based on dna analysis forensic
scientists suggest he shot
two people with one arrow and may have
carried a wounded companion over his
shoulder before finally dying
knife still clutched in his right hand
number two
lady dai in the late sixties and early
seventies
workers accidentally unearthed the tomb
of the marquis of dai
shinjui a noble during the han dynasty
in china over two thousand years ago
her body was buried in four nested
coffins decorated with themes of death
and rebirth
and is one of the best preserved ancient
humans ever found
with eyelashes still on her eyelids and
traces of blood in her veins
she was preserved thanks to an unknown
liquid and an airtight
tomb her body and belongings are now in
the care of the hunan museum in china
she was led a life of considerable ease
of luxury
no joke i used to watch a lot of
documentaries about ancient egypt
as a kid and they would often show
mummies and i ended up having a
nightmare that one was in bed with me
and
quite frankly i'm still kind of freaked
out i mean looking at the sarcophagus is
one thing
with the actual mummy anyway do you
think you know which real-life mummy is
the most famous
i think i do but let's see if i'm right
after these honorable mentions
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the most interesting discovery about
child setting is how well preserved she
is not only her face
but also her hair which appears to be
quite long and falls either side of her
head
and is truly remarkably preserved
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not quite at the end yet almost there
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alright back to business number one
tootin common
when british archaeologist howard carter
discovered king tut's tomb in 1922
it catapulted him to worldwide fame the
tomb was packed with a mind-blowing
wealth of artifacts
including of course the 3300 year old
mummy itself
wrapped in linen and placed inside a
golden sarcophagus
death eternal punishment
for anyone who
opens this casket the premature deaths
of some who entered the tomb
popularized a belief in a curse of the
pharaohs inspiring the original the
mummy movie
and for better or worse all mummy movies
to come
he's still still juicy
yes tutankhamun remains arguably the
most famous pharaoh in history
and the most famous mummy do you agree
with our picks
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