Mummification is the process of preserving a dead body so it doesn't decay. The ancient Egyptians were masters of this technique, developing elaborate methods over thousands of years to prepare bodies for the afterlife.

Egyptian mummification was a complex, sacred procedure that took about 70 days. Embalmers removed internal organs (except the heart, which they believed held a person's soul), dried the body with special salts, and wrapped it in hundreds of yards of linen strips. They placed the finished mummy in decorated coffins, often nested inside each other like Russian dolls. The Egyptians believed that preserving the body this way allowed a person's spirit to recognize and reunite with it in the afterlife.

While the Egyptians are most famous for mummification, other cultures developed similar practices. The Chinchorro people of South America were mummifying their dead 2,000 years before the Egyptians began. Some bodies also become naturally mummified in extremely dry deserts or frozen mountaintops, where conditions prevent decay without any human intervention.

Today, scientists study mummies to learn about ancient diseases, diets, and daily life. Modern CT scans let researchers peek inside wrapped mummies without damaging them, revealing details about how people lived and died thousands of years ago.