THE SPIRITUAL PRACTICE OF SELF-MUMMIFICATION

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BY RICHARD MILNER/JAN. 22, 2021 10:02 AM EST

When you think of mummies you might envision those ACE bandage-wearing guys pulled from
sarcophagi in Egypt — you know: all pharaonic, shrunken and distributing curses — or maybe Universal
Picture's miserably failed Dark Universe launch circa 2017's Tom Cruise-led The Mummy. (Actually,
we're betting you didn't even remember that movie until right now, although you might remember
Brendan Fraser's identically named 1999 movie.) But what you don't probably think of is desiccated
Buddhist monks hardened into a permanent, multi-hundred-year-old seated lotus position.

This is exactly the case, though, with members of Shingon, an ascetic, nondoctrinal sect of Buddhism
that arose during Japan's Heian period (794-1185 CE), built from the tethers between Japan's native
Shinto animism and Buddhism as it was imported from mainland China. Shingon monks followed
Shugendo, described by the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies as a loose set of traditions and lore,
and much like their far-flung civilizational forbears in ancient Egypt, practiced mummification. But rather
than use root extracts, natural plant gum, and conifer tree resin applied to an organless, salted, and
embalmed body (per the BBC), or letting peat bogs do the trick like Tollund Man in Denmark (per
Museum Silkeborg), these monks became mummified while they were alive. And how? Well naturally,
they did it to themselves.

Good news? No organ extraction was necessary while living. Also possibly good: the practice ceased in
the late 19th century, per Vintage News, as the government decreed it cruel self-treatment akin to
suicide.

PRACTICED BY THE SHINGON MONKS OF JAPAN

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To be fair, Shugendo monks weren't the only ones mummifying themselves. Famed Thai mummy-monk
Luang Pho Daeng, seen in this Medium article sporting what might be Ray Bans, sits eternally waiting for
fans and photo-ops at Wat Khunaram on the island of Ko Samui. Another self-mummified Chinese monk
named Qisan Zhang now rests inside a 1,000-year-old statue stolen from its village of Yongchun in 1995
and put on display in Budapest before winding up in the Netherlands, as Quartz explains.

The practice, though, seemingly originated in Japan with the rise of Shingon Buddhism. Some sources
point to a mystic and ascetic named En no Gyoja, who in 699 was apparently banished from the imperial
court for having "supernatural powers," as Culture Trip tells us. Most commonly, though, a monk named
Kukai (774 – 835 CE) is credited as the sect's progenitor, driven by what the Japan Times describes as a
contest between Shingon and its rival, Tendai Buddhism, over control of Mount Yudono, a sacred
mediational site. And so, to prove his point (we assume), Kukai was the first to become sokushinbutsu: a
mummy-monk meant to embody principles of self-denial. In Kukai's case, he also intended to "emerge in
approximately 5.67 million years to usher a predetermined number of souls into nirvana," per Atlas
Obscura.

Kukai, known posthumously by the honorary "Kobo Daishi," set an example that would be followed, and
procedurally honed, for centuries. i09 describes the procedure as "gruesome" and "excruciating."

THE GRUELING, AGONIZING PROCESS OF SELF-MUMMIFICATION

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As Atlas Obscura says, it took until 1081 CE for another monk, Shojin, to try and follow in Kukai's
footsteps and enter a state of perceived, perpetual mediation, but he failed and merely rotted away like
anyone else. It took centuries of trial and error (and yeah, deaths) for monks to figure out the correct
process.

Shugendo's first step to self-mummification involved stripping away body fat by ingesting a diet of only
nuts, seeds, and roots from Mount Yudono. Would-be sokushinbutsu did this for 1,000 days, minimum,
and sometimes in two or three cycles. The idea was to remove from the body anything that bacteria and
parasites would be attracted to, thereby slowing decomposition. After this, monks cut out solid food
altogether, and only drank poisonous tea made from the Urushi tree (similar to poison ivy), which, as
Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia tells us, caused intense vomiting and removed as much fluid from the
body as possible. Then, they cut out water completely and waited to die.

When monks were ready to enter this state, dubbed "nyujo," they were buried alive. Lowered into a
pine box three meters underground, packed with charcoal, monks sat in a lotus position and breathed
through a tube connected to the world above. In total darkness they meditated, and each day rung a
bell. When the bell stopped ringing, those outside assumed that the monk had died. In another 1,000
days the body was disinterred and checked for decay.

BUDDHAS ENSHRINED IN PHYSICAL, EARTHLY FORMS

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The newest sokushinbutsu, Tetsuryukai, who self-mummified in 1881 after the practice was made illegal,
joins a small cadre of only about 24 individuals of the Shingon sect of Buddhism who successfully passed
into what was believed to be a form of enlightenment. In fact, as the Japan Times says, these mummy-
monks were considered actual, eternally fleshly Buddhas. After being exhumed, each of their bodies was
placed in a shrine, dressed in robes, and worshipped. Those who failed? No word on their everlasting
fate, but they were revered for their bravery and determination, nonetheless.
At present, domestic and international tourists alike can travel to see any of the
remaining sokushinbutsu. Some have gotten destroyed over the years, leaving 16, and 13 of them are in
Yamagata Prefecture in the Tohoku region of Japan, as i09 says. There's a full list of each monk visible
for viewing and the locations on Japan Reference. One of the most famous mummies, Daijuku Bosatsu
Shinnyokai-Shonin, who mummified himself at the age of 96 in 1783, currently resides in Ryusui-ji
Dainichibou Temple in Tsuruoka City in Yamagata Prefecture.

Over time, as Japan entered the Meiji era (1868 – 1912 CE) and modernized, and especially after the
practice of self-mummification was outlawed, people began to view the monks more as madmen than
wise men. No matter how they might be viewed today, the remains of their dogmatism are certainly a
thing to behold. 

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THE UNTOLD TRUTH OF MUMMIES

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BY ROSE BURKE/JUNE 7, 2017 1:28 PM EST/UPDATED: APRIL 18, 2018 4:14 PM EST

Mummies have certainly gotten a bum rap over the years. They've been featured as villains in Halloween
specials, low-budget horror flicks, and even a few Hollywood blockbusters — like 2017's The Mummy,
starring Tom Cruise. But few people know the real truth about mummies and how they've been used
throughout history. Some of these facts are far weirder than anything Hollywood has come up with.
Here's everything you ever wanted to know about mummies — and plenty more that you didn't.
(This article is about historical mummies, but if you wanted to read about mummies in the movies,
we've got you covered at that link.)

NOT ALL EGYPTIANS WERE MUMMIFIED

Mummification wasn't a rite of passage that every Egyptian had the honor of experiencing. It was
actually an expensive process that not everyone could afford. So, just like your gym membership or cell
phone plan, the Egyptians offered the families of the deceased three different mummification package
plans, and, of course, the most expensive plan was the only one worth getting.

The highest level of mummification involved thorough cleaning of the body, delicate removal (and
cleaning) of its internal organs, and infusing it with valuable substances, like "pure myrrh" and cassia.
The other options were far more careless with the body by comparison. But while the other two options
were cheaper, they carried a higher social cost. Families that selected those options, especially if it was
public knowledge that they could afford a better plan, put the family at risk for social shame. But wait, it
gets worse: it was also said that those families who cheaped out in regards to the embalming of a family
member would risk being haunted by the deceased. 

Really, if your option is paying more for a better mummy or being cursed forever by your dead uncle, the
choice seems like no choice at all. 

CORPSE "SLITTERS" HAD A THANKLESS JOB

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The Egyptians held the human body in such high regard that it caused some moral conflict during the
mummification process. Crossing over to the other other side required having a whole, unharmed body,
so causing harm to a person — even after they were dead — was strictly forbidden. That, of course,
made the embalming process kind of difficult.

Mummification involved removing cutting a corpse open and removing all their organs, so the Egyptians
had to get a little creative so they could get around their restrictive laws. This led to the creation of
the slitter, who had two jobs: 1) cut open the body, and 2) run.

Why'd they have to run? Well, after making the incision in the corpse, slitters had to run from the rock-
throwing mobs who were ceremoniously sent after them as punishment for harming dead bodies. So in
addition to being good with a knife, slitters needed to have a decent set of legs, too.
OPEN-MOUTHED MUMMIES

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The Egyptians' mummification process also included a ritual known literally as "opening of the
mouth," which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Either the corpses' mouths or the mouths on
their face masks were left open to symbolize the act of breathing. Because the Egyptians believed that
life continued after death, the idea here was that the ritual could rejuvenate the person's senses. It
didn't, of course, but that didn't stop them from doing it. 

The open-mouthed mummies were also supposedly able to enjoy the food and drinks that loved ones
offered during tomb-visits. The best part of family picnics in the pyramid after you were dead? Calories
were no longer an issue.

UNWRAPPING MUMMIES WAS A POPULAR ATTRACTION

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As we've clearly established, much of ancient Egyptian culture revolved around life after death and
preserving the body for the afterlife. So why not completely disregard their beliefs and turn their
corpses into a public spectacle? That's what the British did. During the Victorian age, mummies were
unwrapped on stage in academic settings, usually with the intention of learning more about ancient
Egypt. However, these exhibitions fascinated the public, and they were often attended by plenty of
people who weren't actively involved in Egyptian scholarship of any kind. 

Thomas Pettigrew, a well known surgeon, was most known for hosting these events, which he called
"unrollings," where he unwrapped mummies and performed autopsies for enormous audiences.
Thankfully the appeal of these kinds of events eventually wore off in the early 1900's.

As weird as that sounds, it's nothing compared to what was done to the bodies after the unwrappings
were over...

MUMMIES WERE GROUND UP TO MAKE PAINT

Interior of a kitchen - Martin Drolling

After mummies were purchased, unwrapped, and ultimately worthless when these unwrapping events
came to an end, the bodies were often sold to manufacturers. Now, what could manufacturers do with a
bunch of dried up, unwrapped mummy corpses? The answer is so grotesque, it's amazing that it was
able to continue for so many years. After they were purchased, these mummy remains would be ground
up and used to create a paint pigment literally called Mummy Brown. 

According to an article published by Scientific American, artists would use the paint in their art without
actually understanding the source of the color, said to be "a highly variable pigment between raw umber
[...] and burnt umber." So some of those older paintings you might have hanging around your house may
have been created using parts of a dead body, such as Martin Drolling's 1815 painting Interior of a
kitchen, pictured above.

The article explains that, because it was a "figurative" color, Mummy Brown "faded easily." The result
was diminished interest in the paint from artists. But that didn't stop paint manufacturers from still
making the stuff. It wasn't until the 1960s that paint companies stopped producing Mummy
Brown...because they ran out of corpses. 

That's right, Mummy Brown wasn't discontinued because it's disgusting, disrespectful, or just outright
wrong. It's because they were fresh out of mummies.

MUMMY MEDICINE

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If you thought the weirdest uses for ancient Egyptian corpses was publicly desecrating them or grinding
them up for paint, you'd be wrong. That's because back in the 17th century, mummies were also ground
up to create the Baroque period's equivalent to Tylenol, thought to cure practically anything
from everyday headaches to internal bleeding. 

The mummy's skull was an especially valuable part of the corpse, as the moss that sometimes grew on it
after burial was thought to have impeccable healing qualities. That moss would be ground up and
ingested to get rid of nosebleeds and symptoms associated with epilepsy — neither of which are life or
death situations that might justify eating the gunk that grows on a dead man's skull.

But that's not all. These corpses' supposed healing powers went beyond the realm of the physical, and
entered into that of the spiritual. According to Clive Gifford's book Killer History, a substance called
"Mummy Powder" or "Mummy Dust" was in high demand among the wealthy since the 12th century. In
fact, England's King Charles II believed the small mummy particles in Mummy Powder contained the
secret to greatness. He "often rubbed the powder on to his skin so he could absorb the ancient
greatness of the pharaohs." Meanwhile, a few hundred years earlier, France's King Francis I drank a mix
of dried rhubarb and mummy powder every day — because he "thought it kept him strong and safe
from assassins." Sounds healthy.
SOME MUMMIES WERE ACCIDENTS

Not all mummies had the luxury of having their organs professionally removed and their mouths gently
left agape. Some, in fact, became mummies purely by accident. These poor, unglamorous corpses are
called bog bodies. 

Found throughout Europe, bog bodies are the naturally mummified results of people dying amid bogs
and wetlands. These oxygen-poor areas are rich in anti-microbial peat moss, so the bog bodies
discovered within are often incredibly well-preserved. An article published by the History Channel says
that bodies hundreds of years old still have "discernible facial features, fingerprints, hair, nails and other
identifying traits." 

FRANKENMUMMIES

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The Egyptians may have been the most famous culture that practiced mummification, but they weren't
the only ones. In fact, in 2001, scientists discovered several 3,000 year old mummies on an island near
Scotland — but that's not the weirdest part. No, the strangest aspect of these Scottish mummies was
the fact that, according to National Geographic, these mummies actually contained the parts of several
different bodies. Apparently these "Frankenstein mummies" were originally mummified in a bog, before
being re-buried 300 to 600 years later. 

Researchers have several opinions on what exactly occurred here. One theory is that when the bodies
were discovered a few hundred years after their deaths, they were buried properly. The people doing
the burying simply combined the parts of different corpses they found to make complete bodies. 

A more far-fetched theory is that these Frankenstein mummies were created intentionally, choosing one
piece from several bodies that portrayed a specific trait from the family lineage until a complete body
was formed. That's a pretty sick idea for a family tree.

SOME JAPANESE MONKS MUMMIFIED THEMSELVES...WHILE STILL LIVING

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You might think the mummification process begins only after a person's last heartbeat. But according to
Atlas Obscura, a small number of Shingon monks in Japan began to mummify themselves while they
were still breathing. The goal of the practice was to enter a state of deep, eternal meditation, and over
the course of about 800 years, over a dozen monks actually succeeded at making mummies of
themselves. 

It began with a pretty nasty diet that forbade the ingestion of anything but what could be found in the
wooded mountains where they lived in solitude, leaving them to eat nuts, roots from trees, bark, and
pine needles. Thought to cleanse the spirit, this strict diet also eliminated body fat, muscle tissue, and
moisture — ultimately beginning mummifying the body while they were still alive.

This was done for 1,000 days, alternating between foraging for food and meditating until the cycle was
considered to be complete. Most of these Japanese monks went through the cycle several times before
feeling that they were truly ready for the final step...likely because the final step was death. They'd stop
eating until they felt that it was finally time to die. At that point they'd call on their friends to bury them
into a relatively small pit with just a small tube leading to the surface for air so they wouldn't suffocate,
but instead would die from starvation.

The process was far from over, however. A thousand years after their burial, the tombs of these monks
were opened to see if mummification was successful. Only the bodies that showed no sign of decay
were considered successful and were enshrined. All the others were discarded and basically considered
a giant waste of time.

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THINGS ABOUT ANCIENT EGYPT THAT STILL CAN'T BE EXPLAINED

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BY JASON IANNONE/AUG. 21, 2017 7:03 AM EST/UPDATED: SEPT. 20, 2018 3:42 PM EST
Few civilizations have a more mysterious reputation than ancient Egypt. But the point of a mystery is to
solve it, and over the years we've researched and studied our way to learning a lot about the land of
hieroglyphs and holy cats. But there's still a lot left to learn. Perhaps one day we'll uncover the answers
behind the following questions, but for now all we can do is guess. Here are things about ancient Egypt
that still can't be explained.

HOW DID KING TUT DIE?

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King Tutankhamun (Tut if you can't spell) is perhaps the most famous of all Egyptian pharaohs, despite
dying young. But how did he die? Sadly, any obituary in the Ankh Times has long since been lost to the
ages. So all we've got is a few decent guesses.

In 2013, a group of UK researchers released a documentary called Tutankhamun: The Mystery of the
Burnt Mummy. Based on X-rays taken of Tut in 1968 (along with a CT scan done in 2005 by Egypt's
Supreme Council of Antiquities), the documentary reveals he had significant damage to his ribs, along
with a broken leg. That led the team to conclude that Tut likely died from a chariot crashing into the
poor boy-king.

But National Geographic pointed out other possibilities. It could've been a kick from a chariot horse that
did him in, or possibly even a hippo attack (unluckily for him, hippos were not extinct in Egypt back
then). Then there's his ribs — many are missing. They could've been shattered in an accident, but they
also might have been sawed away by World War II-era thieves trying to get to valuable beads stuck on
his chest.

Then you've got another theory, put forth by Professor Albert Zink, head of Italy's Institute for Mummies
and Icemen (as reported by the Jerusalem Post). To Zink, who relied on 2,000 computer scans plus DNA
testing of Tut's family, Tut's chariot accident was near-impossible. One big reason? He had a clubbed
foot and couldn't stand on his own — inside his tomb are 130 walking canes, which he probably didn't
use for fashion's sake.

Zink thinks Tut likely died because he was the product of incest — his parents were brother and sister —
and so his already-weak body simply gave out on him. To further complicate matters, Tut suffered from
malaria. That theoretically could've killed him, but even Zink admits they have no way of knowing for
sure. For now, the only thing ironclad about King Tut's death is that it happened.

WHERE IS ALEXANDER THE GREAT'S TOMB?

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Few people came closer to ruling the entire known world than Alexander the Great.Yet, for such a
famous guy, we have no idea where he's actually buried.

Archaeology Magazine published two articles by Robert Bianchi in 1993 and 1995 about the search for
Alexander's tomb. As it turns out, there was never supposed to be a tomb at all — Alexander wanted to
be thrown into the Euphrates River upon his death in 323 BC, so it would disappear and his followers
would think he rose to Heaven to be with his father, the god Ammon. His generals, however, chose to
bury him instead, and he supposedly wound up entombed in three different places. First, he was buried
in Memphis, Egypt. Then, during either the 4th or 3rd century BC, he was moved to a new tomb, in
Alexandria. Later on still, he got a new tomb, also in Alexandria. In AD 215, Roman Emperor Caracalla
visited the tomb, and that's the last recorded thing we know about it. At some point, the tomb was likely
damaged and vandalized, and now we don't have any part of it to look at, including Alexander's body.
Maybe Ammon took him away after all.

As of 1993, the Supreme Council for Antiquities recognized 140 separate searches for Alexander's tomb
and body, and each has had the exact same amount of luck: none. Over twenty years later, we still know
just as much. The only thing everybody agrees on is that he was indeed buried in Alexandria and stayed
there until his tomb disappeared. Which makes sense — if the city's named after you, why would you
want to leave?

WHAT WAS THE SPHINX'S ORIGINAL NAME?

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For centuries, we knew next-to-nothing about the Sphinx. Until 1817, all we could see was its head
peeking out from layers and layers of sand. But since then, thanks in large part to the efforts of
archaeologist Mark Lehner (as recapped by Smithsonian.com), we've learned a lot about the Sphinx. We
have a real good idea who built it (Pharaoh Khafre), how he got it done (hundreds of paid laborers using
a humongous chunk of nearby limestone), and how long it probably took (based on the copper and
stone tools they were using, probably around three years if 100 people worked on it). Other than that,
though, we've got ourselves guesses — and that's about it. 
For one thing, we still have no idea what the ancient Egyptians even called the thing. "Sphinx" is a Greek
term that didn't exist when Khafre built his monument — what he and his people called it is currently a
total mystery. The biggest issue is that, as Egyptologist James Allen put it,  "The Egyptians didn't write
history ... so we have no solid evidence for what its builders thought the Sphinx was." For all we know,
they called it Bob.

Another thing about Bob that still confuses us is just what it symbolizes. Obviously it was built for a
reason — but what reason, we don't know. Apparently, a god from that era, Ruti, was comprised of two
lions conjoined at the back (like Cat-Dog, basically), guarding the entrance to the underworld. That
sounds an awful lot like the Sphinx, but without a second lion nearby to confirm, all we have is a hard
"probably."

WHAT ARE THE HIDDEN TEMPLE SHOES ALL ABOUT?

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In 2004, archaeologist Angelo Sesana published a report in the journal Memnonia, regarding a 2,000-
year-old find he and his team had stumbled across in Egypt. As recapped by LiveScience, Sesana's team
found a jar "deliberately placed in a small space between two mudbrick walls" inside a Luxor temple.
Inside were seven pairs of shoes. As for why the shoes were left in that jar, and the fate of their owners,
we simply don't know. 

Ancient Egyptian footware expert André Veldmeijer, whose job is officially more interesting than yours,
examined pictures of the shoes sent to him by Sesana. His assessment was that these shoes were likely
quite expensive and foreign-made, so whoever put them there were likely high-society. But how high,
we don't know. They could've been royalty, or simply well-to-do commoners. Either way, they
apparently felt the need to discard their expensive footwear in a jar, place the jar between two walls in a
tight place others weren't likely to look, and then just leave them there. Were they possibly going to
retrieve them later, only to be murdered first? Did they leave them there for others to use, like an
ancient Goodwill? Nobody knows.

We also don't know exactly how old they are. They're at least 2,000 years old, but without carbon
dating, there's no way to know for sure. Sadly, carbon dating might prove challenging, as the shoes
didn't handle well at all when removed from their hidey-hole. As Veldmeijer recapped in the Journal of
the American Research Center in Egypt, the shoes looked to be in shockingly pristine shape when left
alone. But almost as soon as they were handled, they crumbled and became extremely brittle. They're
currently protected by the Ministry of State for Antiquities, so anyone interested in unlocking this
mystery might want to get on it stat, before the shoes crumble into dust forever.

WHAT'S WITH THE "PAINED EXPRESSION" MUMMY?

Mummies with mouths agape, looking like they're screaming, aren't really a new thing. They're not even
really "screaming" — many mummies had their mouths forced open during special ceremonies meant to
make it easier for spirits to eat, drink, and breathe in the afterlife. However, there's one mummy in
particular that looks like it actually was screaming. In fact, it looks like it's in downright agony, and no
one knows why for sure. 

According to National Geographic, "Unknown Man E" was discovered in 1886, and immediately stood
out because it looked like he was screaming in pain. Many theories abound about how he died, but
nothing's been confirmed except that it probably wasn't pretty. Some researchers think he might have
been poisoned, or possibly buried alive. Others think he was a murdered Hittite prince, though
archaeologist Bob Brier out of the University of Long Island disputes that, saying, "They're not going to
mummify this guy if they murdered him ... they're going to get rid of the body." That makes sense —
gotta hide the evidence, after all.

A 2008 analysis of Unknown Man E suggests he might be Prince Pentewere, executed for planning to
murder his father, Pharaoh Ramses III. If true, it would explain how he was buried: wrapped in a
skeepskin, which meant he had done bad things in his life, according to Zahi Hawass, Secretary-General
of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. It might also explain why he had no grave marking — that
way, he wouldn't be able to join the afterlife, the worst possible punishment for an ancient Egyptian. It
might even explain why his mummification was so unimpressive: he wasn't dehydrated, his brain was
still in his skull, and they poured resin down his throat rather than into his cranium. But this entire
theory of who he might've been is just that: a theory. Without DNA testing, all we're left with is a cool
story that, for some reason, Hollywood still hasn't turned into a movie.

WHAT HAPPENED TO QUEEN NEFERTITI?

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Aside from Cleopatra, there might not be any more famous an Egyptian queen than Nefertiti. For years
she ruled alongside Pharaoh Akhenaten, until she just ... vanished. After 1336 BC, there are no records
of what happened to her. We don't even have her tomb or mummy, and we know how thorough the
Egyptians were regarding dead people. But we don't know for sure — all we have are theories. 

One such theory, as written by History.com, is that she became a co-regent with Akhenaten and
changed her name to Neferneferuaten. Another idea is that she changed her name to Smenkhkare and
became a full-blown pharaoh while disguised as a man. But these theories currently have nothing to
back them up aside from these being names that come next in the royal timeline, and Nefertiti's being
absolutely nowhere.

We may eventually learn something more about Nefertiti, however. In 2015, Egypt's minister of
antiquities (as reported by The Guardian) announced that an additional chamber (or possibly two) may
have been found in King Tut's tomb, and one of them may wind up being Nefertiti's crypt. If so,
researchers could perhaps finally deduce when she died, and if any artwork in the crypt indicates
whether she took power in her own right, was brutally murdered somehow, or simply vanished to a life
of post-royalty anonymity.

HOW MANY CHAMBERS ARE IN THE GREAT PYRAMID?

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Everyone knows and loves the Great Pyramid of Giza — it's the only Natural Wonder still standing, so it
deserves our respect. For awhile, it seemed like we knew exactly what was inside, too. You had three
chambers: the King's Chamber, the Queen's Chamber, and the Grand Gallery. But very recently, more
chambers have been discovered, prompting the question, "how deep does this rabbit sarcophagus go?" 

In October 2016, researchers with Scan Pyramids, a group that uses methods such as muography (x-rays,
basically) and thermography, uncovered evidence of two possible new chambers within the pyramid —
one behind the pyramid's North Face, and one more behind it's descending corridor. This seems to
confirm what robots had been noticing for awhile — that there's more to the pyramid than just those
three rooms. Yes, that's right: robots. 

Since 1993, several small robots have entered the Pyramid to learn what's in there, and they've come
back with mysterious images of tunnels no one had seen since they built the thing 4500 years back.
Though these tunnels are likely too small to be of any use, it did suggest that there may be more hidden
areas in the Pyramid than we thought. And thanks to Scan Pyramids, that thought may prove to be
correct.

And if there are two more rooms, how many others are there? Are these rooms divided into sub-rooms?
Until we do more testing, possibly with more robots, we truly don't know. And honestly, that's a good
thing. The Great Pyramid is a Wonder, after all, so it should make us wonder as long as possible.

WHO WERE THE SEA PEOPLES?

Every hero needs rivals, and for awhile it seems like the Joker to Egypt's Batman were the "Sea Peoples."
And much like Joker, we don't know very much about who they were. In fact, we know basically
nothing. 

In broadest strokes, as told by the Ancient History Encyclopedia, the Sea Peoples were a group of pirates
and raiders who roamed the Mediterranean looking for places to loot. A major target of theirs was
Egypt, who apparently decided to deny them history by barely mentioning them at all. Outside of the
occasional blurb like in the Stele at Tanis ("They came from the sea in their war ships and none could
stand against them,") scrolls and documents of the time say precious little about the invaders from the
sea.

Rulers like Ramses II mentioned them in writing, but didn't bother to say who they were or where they
came from. Most likely this is because any ancient Egyptian reading these inscriptions already knew who
they were. He did say they were allied with the Hittites, but they were also mercenaries for Ramses
himself, apparently. If that's true, we may not know who they were, but we can certainly say they
weren't all that united.

But don't think they were from where the Hittites called home (modern-day Turkey), because the
pharaoh Merenptah wrote that they had allied with the Libyans. Most likely, they were a group of
mercenaries who came from all over and banded together to conquer various lands, Egypt in particular.
But without writings that say as much, that guess is as good as anyone else's.

WHERE EXACTLY WAS THE KINGDOM OF YAM?

Somewhere in Egypt, over 4,000 years ago, existed a mysterious kingdom called Yam. It was a profitable
land-of-plenty. As recapped in the book Black Genesis: The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt by
Robert Bauval and Thomas Brophy, the Egyptian treasurer Harkhuf mentioned (in writings on his tomb)
that he returned from a Yam expedition with some cool stuff. Stuff like, "three hundred donkeys
burdened with incense, ebony, hekenu perfume, grain, leopard skins, elephant tusks, many
boomerangs, and all kinds of beautiful and good presents." 

It was a sweet place, is what he was trying to say. 

Sadly for such a pristine place, Yam has long been lost, and Egyptologists don't even know where the
kingdom was. According to Black Genesis, most Egyptologists believe Yam existed somewhere accessible
to Egyptians, like south or westward along the Nile Valley — the desert up north was simply too harsh,
dehydrated, and unforgiving. But there's one big issue with that hypothesis: Harkhuf's writings. In the
same inscription quoted above, he bragged about making the trip to Yam and back in seven months. No
way would it take seven months to trek somewhere "safe." Bauval and Brophy calculated that, based on
the speed of the donkeys he used to ride to Yam and back, Harkhuf rode at least 900 miles one way.
That's way into that "dangerous desert" territory many Egyptologists still insist he — and by extension
Yam — would perish in.

No matter which theory you subscribe to, both have one thing in common: they shrug their shoulders at
the exact location of this paradisiacal land of incense and leopard skins.

WHO WAS BURIED AT QURNA?

In 1908, British Egyptologist Flinders Petrie stumbled across a royal burial site no one had ever seen
before. Apparently, he had also stumbled across royalty no one had ever heard of before, because over
a century later, we still don't know who was buried there. 

As explained by National Museum of Scotland (which currently stores the coffins), Petrie's team was
digging around Qurna, Thebes, when they unearthed the ornate graves of two people. The coffins were
dated to around the XVII or XVIII dynasties, making the bodies at least 250 years older than King Tut. We
know that one mummy was a young woman and another was a child, presumably hers. They both wore
priceless jewelry made of gold and ivory, so clearly they were important. Unfortunately, the inscription
that might reveal who they are has been damaged beyond legibility — it almost certainly reads "King's
great wife," but the part where the king might namecheck her and their kid isn't there anymore.

There are a few possibilities, based on the queens of the time. To name a few, she might have been
Ha'ankhes, Nubemhat, or the as-yet unidentified wife of Rahoptep or Inyotef V. We have far fewer, if
any, clues about the kid's identity — for the time being, it's looking to stay that way. The pair are
scheduled to be unveiled at the Scotland Museum in 2018, once a new Egyptian gallery is all set to go.
Maybe then someone will figure out who they are and the museum's guests will finally learn the the
truth behind these mysterious figures. 

Or they can just gawk at the pretty jewelry. Either way.

WHO BUILT THE NABTA PLAYA STONE CIRCLE?

Raymbetz/Wikimedia Commons

Stonehenge isn't the only circle of mysterious rocks out there — Southern Egypt's got one, too. The
Nabta Playa Stone Circle is a collection of flat rocks with taller rocks in the middle, discovered in 1974 by
a team of scientists. (A reconstruction is pictured above.) According to Archaeology Expert, it's much
smaller than Stonehenge but may have served the same purpose. We say "may have" because nobody
can conclude for certain why the Stone Circle existed in the first place.

Some people, such as astrophysicist Dr. Thomas Brophy in his 2005 paper Satellite Imagery Measures of
the Astronomically Aligned Megaliths at Nabta Playa, theorize that, based on satellite views, the Circle
was constructed for space-related reasons. Then there's the 2007 paper Astronomy of Nabta Playa,
which theorizes that the placement of the stones, plus livestock and human graves nearby, "reveals a
very early symbolic connection to the heavens."

The thing is, we don't know what that connection might be. Stars? The Sun? An ancient god we don't
know about yet? We still don't know the true target of the Circle's rocky wrath, mostly because, as
Brophy wrote, "Only a small number of the subsurface bedrock sculptures have been excavated." It's
hard to reach any definite conclusion when you don't have the whole thing in front of you.
WHICH SCRIPT ON THE ROSETTA STONE IS THE MAIN ONE?

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Before the language-learning software, there was only one Rosetta Stone, and it was in Egypt. It's been
decades since linguists deciphered the three languages on the Stone — hieroglyphs, ancient Demotic
Egyptian, and ancient Greek. But we don't yet know which of the three dialects is the main one, the one
that came first and inspired the other two to translate themselves and catch up.

It's hard to know for sure, since all three were widely used in ancient Egyptian times — it's not like
Demotic was some weird Esperanto-esque blip on the radar that nobody really spoke. But experts differ
on which was "the" script. John Ray opines, in his book The Rosetta Stone and the Rebirth of Ancient
Egypt, that "the hieroglyphs were the most important of the scripts on the stone; they were there for
the gods to read, and the more learned of their priesthood." Pretty straightforward, right? Hieroglyphs
are certainly the most fun to draw of the three, so why not make them the most important? Not so fast,
say others. According to Cracking Codes: The Rosetta Stone and Decipherment, all three were equally
important. Since many Egyptians spoke both Greek and Egyptian, had names in both languages, and
worshiped gods who had names in both languages, it made sense for all three dialects to be equally
common. But if, as Ray claims, the gods like hieroglyphs best, who's going to argue with them?

WHAT IS THE DENDERA LIGHT?

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The Dendera Light, even by weird ancient Egyptian standards, makes no sense. It's a drawing of a man
holding what looks to be a gigantic tube that is taller and wider than he is. And nobody knows for sure
what it is, though the more fantastically minded among us certainly have some creative ideas.

Certain pseudo-scientists, such as Erich von Däniken (who pals around with Giorgio "Aliens" Tsoukalos,
to clue you into his mindset) think it's a giant battery or electric tube. If you paid attention for even one
day in school, you know the ancient Egyptians didn't have electricity, but that isn't stopping people from
arguing that they did and that humanity just conveniently forgot about it for 3,500 years. Then you've
got more traditional, rational Egyptologists, who think the "Light" might be, according to Atlas Obscura,
a "combination of a Lotus flower, a Djed pillar (a symbol of stability, symbolized by the outstretched
arms), and a snake rising from the flower through the womb of Nut [the sky goddess]." There are
inscriptions around the drawing that suggest it's a lotus flower, out of which will emerge the rising sun,
but it's impossible to say for sure. The Egyptologists are probably closer to being right then the battery
people, but there's always the possibility that it's just a giant, State Fair-winning eggplant.

WHERE'S THE REST OF THE SECOND SPHINX?

Everyone knows the Great Sphinx, probably because we already talked about it in this article. But a new
one was found recently, except we've so far been only been able to locate a small part of it. We don't
know what happened to the rest of it.

As CNN reported in 2013, archaeologists in Israel discovered the legs of a 4,000-year-old Sphinx. It
appears to be tied to King Mycerinus, but according to Amnon Ben-Tor, head of the excavation, it was
long ago broken up and its pieces scattered. Likely, either Mycerinus or his city fell. In Egyptian tradition,
once a ruler fell, so did their statues. As for where the remaining pieces of this brand spanking new
sphinx are, nobody knows. Luckily, any pieces that still exist won't be too hard to carry. Based on the
feet, this is a much smaller Sphinx than the famous one in Egypt. Archaeologists estimate it weighs
maybe a half-ton and stands just a yard high. It's the perfect size for any child's bedroom.

There's an additional mystery, too: how the Sphinx got to Israel in the first place. Ben-Tor wonders if it
was a gift from Mycerinus to the king of nearby Hazor, but he and his team won't know for sure until
they've dug up the entire site. Don't hold your breath for it to happen, though — Ben-Tor estimates it'll
take 600 years to dig up the entire 200-acre site. That's a lot of sand.