5. Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (10th April 1870 – 21st January 1924) was one of the leading political figures and revolutionary thinkers of the 20th century, who masterminded the Bolshevik take-over of power in Russia in 1917, and was the architect and first head of the USSR. In 1918, he narrowly survived an assassination attempt, but was severely wounded. His long-term health was affected, and in May 1922 he suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered. In December 1922, he suffered a second stroke that partly paralyzed his right side and caused him to withdraw from active politics. In March 1923, he suffered a third stroke that left him dumb and bed-ridden until he died on 21st of January 1924, aged 53, at his estate in Gorki Leninskiye. His body was embalmed and exhibited in the Lenin Mausoleum, Moscow where it can still be viewed today.
4. Saint Bernadette
Saint Bernadette was born Maria-Bernada Sobirós (7th January 1844 – 16th April 1879) and was a miller’s daughter from the town of Lourdes in southern France. Despite her body not being technically mummified, she definitely deserves a place on this list. From February 11th to July 16th 1858, she reported eighteen apparitions of “a small young lady.” Despite initial skepticism from the Catholic Church, these claims were eventually declared to be worthy of belief after a canonical investigation, and the apparition is known as ‘Our Lady of Lourdes’ – the Virgin Mary. After her death, Bernadette’s body remains incorrupt and can be viewed in the Chapel of Saint Bernadette in Nevers. On December 8th, 1933, she was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church.
3. Juanita
Juanita (“The Ice Maiden”) was discovered on the summit of Mount Ampato, Peru, on September 8th, 1995. She was 12–14 when sacrificed 500 years ago – a great honour for an Incan – they believed the Ampato God supplied water and withheld avalanches in return for human sacrifices. A young girl, boy and the skeleton of a woman were discovered in later expeditions, as were items left as offerings to the gods. The eruption of nearby volcano Mount. Sabancaya melted 500 years of ice and snow encasing Juanita, who was almost entirely frozen – her skin, internal organs, hair, clothing, blood and even the contents of her stomach preserved, offering scientists a rare glimpse into the life of the Incas. Juanita was wearing clothing resembling the finest textiles from Cuzco and was the closest sacrifice to the Inca capital, suggesting she may have come from a noble Cuzco family.
Juanita was chosen as the most beautiful and innocent and would be ‘guaranteed eternal life with the gods’. As the other bodies were further down the mountain, they were not as pure and worthy as Juanita. It took incredible effort (and whole entourages of priests, villagers, provisions, water, as well as symbolic items used in the ritual – all carried on the backs of hundreds of llamas and porters) to hold sacrificial rituals in the thin air and life-threatening cold of Mount Ampato – 20,000 feet high. Juanita was killed by a powerful blow to the head and was probably given chicha, a strong hallucinogenic drink before the ritual was performed. In 1996, President Clinton saw a photo of Juanita and reportedly said, “If I were a single man, I might ask that mummy out. That’s a good-looking mummy!” Juanita is on display at the Museo Santuarios de Altura in Arequipa, Peru.
2. Ötzi the Iceman
Ötzi the Iceman (also known as Similaun Man or Man from Hauslabjoch) is a well-preserved natural mummy of a man from about 3300 BC (53 centuries ago). The mummy was found in September 1991 in the Schnalstal glacier in the Ötztal Alps, near Hauslabjoch, on the border between Austria and Italy. The nickname comes from Ötztal, the region in which he was discovered. He is Europe’s oldest natural human mummy, and has offered an unprecedented view of Chalcolithic (Copper Age) Europeans. The cause of death was most likely a blow to the head. The body and his belongings are displayed in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, northern Italy.
1. Lady Dai (Xin Zhui)
In 1971 workers in China digging an air raid shelter near the city of Changsha uncovered an enormous Han Dynasty-era tomb containing over 1,000 well-preserved artefacts, as well as “the most perfectly preserved corpse ever found”. The tomb belonged to Xin Zhui, wife of the Marquis of Han who died between 178–145 BC, around 50 years of age. Her body is so well preserved that when found it was autopsied as if recently dead and her skin was supple, limbs could be manipulated; hair and internal organs were intact; remains of her last meal were found in her stomach and type A blood still ran red in her veins. Examinations have revealed that she suffered from parasites, lower back pain, clogged arteries, had a massively damaged heart (an indication of heart disease brought on by obesity, lack of exercise and an overly rich diet) and was overweight at the time of her death.
The ‘mystery of Lady Dai’ has not yet been solved. Scientists believe contributing to her remarkable preservation was the 22 dresses of silk and hemp and 9 silk ribbons she was tightly wrapped in. Clothes filled the coffin, which was perfectly sealed, keeping air out. There were inner and outer tombs, which were more than 50 feet below the earth as well as the four coffins she was buried in, each inside the other. However, some scientists suspect the real key to her preservation lies in the mysterious unidentified reddish liquid found in the coffin she was discovered in. To intensify the mystery, two other tombs containing bodies in a similar state of preservation have been found close to Lady Dai – Sui Xiaoyuan and Ling Huiping. Her 2,000-year-old body is currently housed in the Hunan Provincial Museum.
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