00:00 Learn how mummies are created and the process a body goes through after death, including autolysis and putrefaction.

04:28 Mummies are created when bodies are buried in sand, which desiccates the tissue and prevents bacteria from living, but the concept of mummification in Egypt started by accident when bodies buried in sand were preserved, leading to purposeful mummification and the use of caskets.

08:59 The ancient Egyptians developed embalming techniques to preserve bodies better than natural desiccation, and eventually realized that they needed to address the decomposition happening from the inside out by removing organs, leading to the heyday of mummification during the middle kingdom.

13:26 After washing the body, the ancient Egyptians would remove the brain by hammering a chisel through the bone in the nose, discard it because they believed it was unnecessary in the afterlife, and then proceed to remove and preserve the other organs, except for the kidneys, which they also believed were unimportant.

17:59 The key to mummification is the use of natrin, a compound made from baking soda and salt, which is used to preserve the body by completely drying it out over a period of 40 days before it is wrapped in linen bandages.

23:12 After wrapping the body individually, a whole body wrap is done with new layers of linen coated in hot resin, and amulets are sometimes wrapped over different parts of the body; however, this process was only for the wealthy, while those with less money would have their organs removed by injecting oil into their cavities and then drained out, before being outfitted with a cartonage cage and a funerary mask to direct the spirit to the right body, and finally being carried in a suet to the tomb.

27:48 The fascination with mummies in the 1920s led to the belief in mummy curses, but it was actually the release of mold spores from the food buried with the mummies that posed a potential health risk.

32:33 The oldest mummies on the planet are from northern Chile, created by the Chinchoro people who dismembered and disemboweled the body before putting it back together with straw and sticks, covering it with black mud, and shaping it into a human form, possibly to mourn the death of their loved ones.

37:25 Mummies have been preserved using various methods throughout history, including mercury and embalming fluid, wax, plastinization, and even being considered incorruptible due to purity.

42:03 The mummification process, not the passage of time, is what gives mummies their shriveled and wrinkled appearance.