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Mummy, facts about mummies

A mummy is a specially preserved dead body. The name comes from an Arabic word 'mumiya', which means 'bitumen'; and this comes from a Persian word 'mum', which means 'wax'. Belief in a life after death has led many peoples to try to keep the bodies of their dead from rotting, so that the body would be ready for the return of the spirit. Preserved bodies have been found in caves in South America. It was the ancient Egyptians, however, who really became masters of the art of embalming (preserving dead bodies). Bodies were drained of fluids, treated with preservatives, covered with bitumen, and then wrapped in linen cloths. This was the mummy; it was placed in a casket on which the dead person's face was painted.

Egyptian mummy, facts about mummies
An Egyptian mummy. The body was soaked in chemicals, stuffed with sawdust, and wrapped in linen bandages. The mummy might be contained in the innermost of a series of coffins. The outer coffin is known as a Sarcophagus

Embalming the dead is not uncommon, today, in the United States. In the Russian Federation the dead leader Lenin has been embalmed. Lenin's body is on show in the Red Square in Moscow, though he died in 1924, but he is not wrapped up like a mummy.

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