So much of travel is about coming face to face with history – literally, in some cases. Introducing six folks who’ve been preserved – through accident or intent – for us to meet hundreds (and thousands) of years later.
1. Tollund Man, Jutland, Denmark
Forget cryogenics, a bog is the best bet if you want to keep hold of your youthful looks. Tollund Man has a complexion that’s still as smooth as the day he was garrotted and tossed in a bog. Sure, he may be a bit leathery and distorted these days, but 2000 years in a bog in Silkeborg, Denmark will do that to you.
Tollund Man is the main (and almost only) attraction at the Silkeborg Museum. He’s believed to have been executed in 300 BC and his body, complete with the rope still around the neck, was discovered in a bog in 1950. The face of the Tollund Man is hypnotic in its detail, right down to the stubble on his chin.
2. Bocksten Man, Varberg, Sweden
Varberg lies by the side of a 60km stretch of beautiful white-sand beaches: its population triples in the summer months. The town’s darker side includes a medieval fortress that, with its superb museum, is Varberg’s star attraction. In-house oddities include the poor old Bocksten Man, dug out of a peat bog at Åkulle in 1936. His 14th-century costume is the most perfectly preserved medieval clothing in Europe.
4. Ginger, London
Ginger is one of the stars of the British Museum. He’s the oldest and most famous fossilised human form, lying in the foetal position in a sandy pit that’s been reconstructed to look like the one in which he was preserved. He was named for the straggly remains of his ginger hair, but his skin is remarkably ginger too.
4. Juanita the Ice Maiden, Arequipa, Peru
A visit to Museo Santury (officially called the Museo de la Universidad Católica de Santa Maríain) in Peru’s second-largest city will bring you face to face with the icy Inca mummies.
This museum exhibits the frozen body of ‘Juanita, the ice maiden’ – sacrificed on the summit of Nevado Ampato over 500 years ago. Tours consist of a video, an examination of burial artifacts, then a respectful viewing of the frozen mummy preserved in a carefully monitored glass-walled exhibition freezer. Juanita is not on display from January to April – another child sacrifice discovered in the mountains around Arequipa takes her place. Only guided visits are permitted and the whole spectacle is done in a respectful, non-ghoulish manner.
5. Lenin, Moscow
Red Square is home to the world’s most famous mummy, that of Vladimir Lenin. When he died of a massive stroke (on 22 January 1924, aged 53), a long line of mourners patiently gathered and waited for weeks in the harsh winter for a glimpse of the body as it lay in state. Inspired by the spectacle, Stalin proposed Lenin’s corpse should be preserved for perpetuity, despite the vehement protests of his widow as well as Lenin’s wish to be buried next to his mother in St Petersburg.
Every so often, politicians express intentions to heed Lenin’s request and bury him in St Petersburg, but it usually sets off a furore from the political left as well as more muted objections from Moscow tour operators. It seems that the mausoleum, the most sacred shrine of Soviet communism, and the mummy, the literal embodiment of the Russian revolution, will remain in place for at least several more years.
6. Mummified monk, Ko Samui, Thailand
One man’s ‘remarkably well preserved’ is another man’s creepy corpse. On Ko Samui, at Wat Khunaram, a venerated monk who died over 30 years ago still sits in his saffron robes. His flesh is grey and crumbling and he wears a pair of sunglasses to hide his hollow eyes. Yikes.