Wednesday, July 11, 2012

101 Wacky Facts About Mummies by Jack C, Harris

Do you like to read about weird stuff? If you do all the unbelievable facts about mummies are here in this little paperback. Once a tomb was discovered with over a million mummified birds! I feel sorry for whoever had to count them. Sometimes ground up mummies were used to cure stomach aches. Imagine sprinkling that on the top of your spag bol! Mummies often still have their toenails and eyelashes, now that's pretty gross.  There are no mummy-making manuals to be found, it seems a topic too sacred to write about, or maybe nobody wanted to share their secrets. This is an engrossing read and once you start you won't want to put it down. 

No one knows exactly what secret ingredients the Egyptians used for preserving their mummies. But scientists know that the ingredients included oil of cedar (similar to today's turpentine) and natron, a mineral with a high salt content.

The text is sprinkled with ink illustrations and is divided into the following chapters: Will the Real Mummy Please Lie Down? Wrap Session, The First Mummy Wrappers, Tomb It May Concern, Grave Robberies "R" Us, Farewell Mummy Dearest, I Want My Mummy, The Chinchorro Connection, Natural Beauties and Better Left Shut: The Tomb of King Tut.  Now, did you also know that apparently only a few thousand mummies have been discovered so that means hundreds of millions of mummies are still out their waiting to be discovered. So get your shovel and start digging...failing that, grab this book and start reading.

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