The truth about the mummy of a 2-year-old girl who still blinks every day after a hundred years

In 1920, a 2-year-old girl named Rosalia Lombardo breathed her last, ending her short life due to pneumonia. Her father, a city official, contacted the famous embalmer Alfredo Salafia to preserve the little girl's eternal form.

100 years later, in the Catacombe Dei Cappuccini catacombs beneath a monastery in Palermo, Italy, you can visit the incredibly well-preserved mummy of little Rosalia. Unlike other mummies, Rosalia resembles the Sleeping Beauty because she still retains her childlike features, with a chubby face, half-closed eyelashes, and a silk bow tied around her golden bun, looking as if she were just sleeping behind a glass.

Rosalia's mummy is always the focus of attention for visitors to the catacombs in Palermo.

But the creepy part is that if you stand there long enough, you'll see her blink.

Many tourists were horrified when they saw a nearly 100-year-old mummy gently open and close its eyes. Meanwhile, Rosalia's eyes, like the rest of her body, were as hard as stone. Some evidence in the form of photos and videos showed that Rosalia's eyes opened and closed many times a day. Besides many rumors about spirituality, many people believe that it is due to the erratic temperature changes in the tomb, causing the eyelids to open and close.

However, after much research, anthropologist Dario Piombino-Mascali came up with a completely different hypothesis, which many agree is more reasonable. It is an optical illusion formed when rays of light shine through the window and shine through the glass on Rosalia's mummy's coffin. When the direction of the light changes, Rosalia appears to blink several times a day.

The moment Rosalia "opened her eyes" made viewers terrified and gave them goosebumps.

Dario’s hypothesis was widely publicized, but many people still came to see the magical “blink” moment with their own eyes. In addition, Alfredo Salafia’s embalming secret was also researched and studied by many scientists every year. Until 2009, the mystery was finally solved. Dario himself discovered a handwritten memoir by Alfredo Salafia, which clearly stated the embalming process of the little girl Rosalia.

Rosalia's embalming process also attracted much attention.

Unlike any other technique in the world, Alfredo did not completely remove Rosalia's organs, but pumped them full of natron salt to dry them. First, he made a small puncture in her body and injected a mixture of formalin, alcohol, salicylic acid, glycerin and zinc salt inside. The reason was clearly stated in his memoir: formalin kills bacteria, acid prevents mold growth, glycerin maintains a certain humidity, and zinc salt petrifies Rosalia's body, preventing her cheeks or nasal cavity from deforming.