Mummies have long captured our curiosity with their rich history and the mysteries they hold. Turn that curiosity into excitement in your classroom with these fascinating and fun facts that bring the ancient world to life – no scary stuff, just cool science and culture!

50 Fascinating Fun Facts About Mummies and Mummification for Social Studies
  1. Mummies were made to last for eternity.
  2. Mummification began around 3500 BCE.
  3. While we usually associate mummies with pharaohs, regular Egyptians could also be mummified.
  4. The lungs, liver, stomach, and intestines were mummified separately from the rest of the body.
  5. To remove the internal organs, a priest made an incision on the left side of the body, a process done by someone called a “ripper up” or “slicer.”
  6. Embalming priests removed the corpse’s brain through the nostrils. However, they did not remove the heart.
  7. They would dry the body for 40 days in natron salt before wrapping it.
  8. It takes about 70 days to fully mummify a body.
  9. Egyptians were not the first culture to mummify their dead – it was first done in South America.
  10. Embalmers placed the internal organs in canopic jars and buried the jars with the body.
  11. Priests treated the inside and outside of the corpse with spices before wrapping it.
  12. There are seven steps to properly mummifying a body.
  13. Embalmers sealed the cloth strips using tree sap.
  14. Without the cloth wrappings, mummies weigh about 5 pounds.
  15. Anubis is the god of mummification. He has a human body and the head of a jackal.
  16. Some embalmed corpses were wrapped with up to 4000 square feet of cloth.
  17. Priests often tucked jewels and amulets into the cloth strips to help the dead in the afterlife.
  18. The Egyptians believed the afterlife was like regular life, so they were often buried with things they might need, such as clothing, shoes, games, and snacks.
  19. Many Egyptians mummified their pets.
  20. King Tut had 143 amulets in his wrappings.
  21. In Victorian England, people would buy mummies and have unwrapping parties.
  22. There is an ancient Egyptian mummy in the Vatican.
  23. To help prevent theft, the Egyptians buried many mummies in secret tombs.
  24. King Tut died when he was still a teenager.
  25. Embalmers covered some mummies with a layer of gold.
  26. There were six chariots in King Tut’s tomb.
  27. Ancient Egyptians sometimes added onions to a mummy to act as false eyes.
  28. Egyptians believed that they would only experience eternal life if their body was intact, which is why mummification was so important.
  29. The mummification process included draining bodies of their blood.
  30. In ancient Egypt, if you raided a tomb, officials would beat your feet and then impale you on a sharp stick.
  31. Researchers found mummified penguins in Antarctica.
  32. During the mummification process, embalmers sealed the mouth and nostrils using beeswax.
  33. Rising humidity in Chile is causing mummies to decompose into black slime.
  34. Priests filled any sagging parts of the body with cloth or sawdust before wrapping the body.
  35. It could take several days to completely wrap a mummy.
  36. The Egyptians made roughly 70 million mummies in total.
  37. The mummy of King Ramses II received a passport so it could travel to France.
  38. A common misconception is that Egyptian priests cursed tombs to protect them from robbers, but this is a myth.
  39. The Egyptians mummified crocodiles.
  40. X-rays of mummies have helped scientists learn about ancient diseases and other causes of death.
  41. Egyptians made mummies for over 3000 years.
  42. Spontaneous mummies occur when bodies unintentionally become exposed to extreme heat or cold.
  43. A stone coffin with a pharaoh inside is a sarcophagus.
  44. People used powdered mummies as medicine between the 12th and 17th centuries.
  45. Researchers have found human or animal mummies on every continent.
  46. The Egyptians built most of the pyramids as tombs for pharaohs.
  47. King Tut’s servants buried him inside three coffins, including one of pure gold.
  48. The Accidental Mummies of Guanajuato is a group of over 100 mummies found in Mexico that were accidentally mummified, probably because of the extreme heat.
  49. King Tut’s tomb, which archaeologists opened to the public in 1923, is famous partially because no one had ever raided it.
  50. Contrary to horror movies, there is no recorded evidence that a mummy has ever come back to life.

Take your students on a fascinating journey to ancient Egypt with any of these facts about one of the most famous parts of Egyptian culture.

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50 Fun Facts About Mummies and Mummification for Social Studies.