Breaking: Revealing the mystery of the 3,000,000 year old mummy: The mysterious phenomenon of the eyes of little girl Rosalia Lombardo

Rosalia inside her tiny glass coffin. Nobody has opened it since she was placed inside. Notice the lid shown in the photo above has been removed

The Most Beautiful Mummy in the World

She’s known by many names: the Girl in the Glass Coffin, Sleeping Beauty, the World’s Most Beautiful Mummy, and the Best Preserved Mummy in the World. In death, she’s become something larger than life. Thousands of visitors each year flock to the Sicilian Catacombs just to catch a glimpse of her tiny body.

Nearly 100 years after her death, Rosalia has changed little. Still sealed inside her tiny glass coffin, Rosalia sleeps, her little head poking above a fading silk blanket. Tufts of blonde hair still flowed down her cheeks, and a silk bow was still tied firmly around her head. The only sign of time has passed is an oxidizing amulet of the Virgin Mary, which rests atop Rosalia’s blanket. It’s so faded that it’s almost unrecognizable. This is Rosalia Lombardo, the famous child mummy.

Mummies are old, but sometimes they're also young — Mummies are old, but sometimes they’re also young

Life

So who exactly was Rosalia? In the 100 years since her death in 1920, Rosalia has become interwoven with Sicilian lore. They tell of a young child, born frail and weak, who endured more pain and sickness throughout her short life than most do in their lifetimes. Her premature death at age two left her father grief-stricken.

Unable to lose his daughter, the father sought the help of embalmer Alfredo Salafia to preserve Rosalia for eternity. The result was nothing short of miraculous. Through Salafia’s embalming process, Rosalia was perfectly preserved. Fitting to her new state of immortality, she was placed inside a glass coffin and interred inside the Capuchin Catacombs of Sicily.

Veritably, the truth about Rosalia’s life has been lost to time. Some say she was the daughter of a wealthy Sicilian noble, a general in the Italian military named Mario Lombardo. The general, according to legend, wanted to preserve his only daughter for eternity and consequentially contacted Alfredo Salafia to embalm her. There are no known photographs of Rosalia alive nor any official documents confirming definitively who her parents were.

General Mario Lombardo. Rosalia's supposed father — General Mario Lombardo. Rosalia’s supposed father

Embalming

Embalmer Alfredo Salafia performed the procedure that would preserve Rosalia. For nearly a century, the exact formula remained a mystery, lost to the grave with Salafia. In 2009, a biological anthropologist named Dario Piombino-Mascali tracked down the eternal formula through Salafia’s living descendants.

The chemicals included formalin, zinc salt, alcohol, salicylic acid, and glycerin. The combination of alcohol and the climate conditions within the catacombs would have dried Rosalia’s body, Glycerin would have allowed the body to mummify, and salicylic acid prevented the growth of mold. The magic ingredient was zinc, which gave the body rigidity, essentially turning it into wax.

This photo taken in the 1970s of Rosalia. Notice the hinged wooden coffin lid to the left, which has since been removed. Only the glass lid remains

A caretaker at the catacombs overlays a second sheet of glass over Rosalia's coffin for added protection — A caretaker at the catacombs overlays a second sheet of glass over Rosalia’s coffin for added protection

The x-ray of Rosalia showing her brain and liver intact. The grid is of the coffin beneath the body

Real or Fake?

Because of the near-perfect nature of Rosalia’s body, some skeptics claimed that the real body was replaced with a realistic wax replica. Such a theory became one of the topics of a History Channel documentary in the 2000s. In it, x-ray equipment was brought to the catacombs, and Rosalia’s coffin was x-rayed for the first time in its existence. They discovered not only a skeletal structure but that her organs were still intact. Her brain was perfectly visible, only having shrunk 50% due to the mummification process.

In 2009, a National Geographic documentary had an MRI performed on the body, producing the first 3D images of Rosalia both inside and out. The MRI confirmed all of her organs were perfectly intact. It also showed her arms at her sides. Nobody has ever looked underneath the blanket that covers Rosalia’s body since she was sealed inside her coffin 90 years ago.

The Mystery of Rosalia’s Eyes

Further adding to the lore of Rosalia’s mummy are reports of her eyes opening! Several time-lapse photos exist that appear to substantiate this claim, showing them opening at least 1/8 of an inch, revealing her intact blue eyes underneath.

The most likely cause of this rather creepy phenomenon is changes in room temperature or simply an optical illusion. Yet it’s fueled many a cult’s belief of Rosalia’s spirit returning to the body and is Rosalia’s most infamous myth.

In this recent photo, Rosalia's left eye is partially open, revealing an intact iris underneath — In this recent photo, Rosalia’s left eye is partially open, revealing an intact iris underneath

Cultural Influence

Rosalia’s perfect mummy exemplifies humans’ fascination with death. As the innocence of the young toddler is forever frozen in time, the quality of her beauty captures the imagination of generation after generation. Her corpse receives more visitors than any other mummy in the Catacombs. Many artists have used Rosalia as an inspiration over the years.