Top 10 Human Remains You Can Visit Around the World
There is something equally fascinating and repulsive about human remains. Whether they emerge as part of a murder investigation, an archaeological dig, a horror film, or a Halloween outfit, we connect with the dead human body on a number of different levels for a variety of reasons.
10 Egyptian Mummies in United Kingdom
The ancient Egyptians mummified their royalty, priests, and sometimes even pets so that their bodies and souls could travel safely into the afterlife. But the process was notoriously gory. The vital organs were removed from the body and stored in ceremonial jars, and the brain was pulled out from the nose in pieces.
British interest in ancient Egyptian tombs, where the mummies were kept, rose during the Victorian era and became especially fashionable when Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922. Due to the Carter-Carnarvon expedition and the treasure-hunting activities of other wealthy Victorians, the British Museum in London holds the biggest collection of Egyptian antiquities outside of Egypt. This includes two rooms full of mummies, one of which is 5,000 years old, in the Roxie Walker Galleries.
9 Sokushinbutsu Monks Japan
Sokushinbutsu literally means “self-mummification.” It was performed by Buddhist monks between AD 1000 and 1800 in the hope that their preserved bodies would become a gateway between the mortal world and the spirit world. The monk would therefore achieve a higher state of enlightenment.
The process gradually deprived the body of nutrients to reduce the amount of bacteria left over after death. The monk was buried alive under strict temperature restrictions with a continuous air supply so that he could continue breathing and die slowly, leaving his body behind almost completely intact.
8 The Sedlec Ossuary in Czech Republic
The Sedlec Ossuary is a church with a difference. All the decorations inside are made of human bone. The church also features at least one of every bone in the human body within a single chandelier, and the entire chapel displays the skeletons of 40,000–70,000 people.
The original church was built in 1400, with the bone decorations added in 1870 by woodcarver Frantisek Rint. Initially, the church was much like any other in the region until King Otakar II of Bohemia sent a member of the Sedlec Cistercian Monastery to the Holy Land on pilgrimage.
While there, he collected a jar of soil, brought it back to the church, and sprinkled it across the cemetery. Sedlec suddenly became the place to be buried for anyone who wanted their remains to be close to holy soil and therefore to God.
7 Korperwelten (aka Body Worlds) in Germany
The Body Worlds exhibition is equal parts art, science, and shock factor. This large selection of real human bodies stripped of their skins and posed in interesting positions like running or performing yoga, shows how the muscles of the body work.
6 Les Catacombes in France
Les Catacombes is a key tourist spot in Paris. It exhibits the bodies and skeletons of people who were formerly buried in the Cemetery of the Innocents near Saint-Eustache in central Paris. People were buried in the cemetery for 1,000 years before it became a health hazard and the bodies had to be relocated.
5 Tollund Man in Denmark
The Tollund Man is one of the best-preserved bog bodies in the world. Discovered in 1950, the remains were mistaken for those of a recent murder victim because the body had been so well-preserved.
4 Barts Pathology Museum in United Kingdom
While there are lots of great medical museums around the world, Barts Pathology Museum in London is special because it is only open for special events. These events are often themed.
3 Vladimir Lenin in Russia
Having been on display since 1924, Lenin’s body is kept preserved and presentable through a strict process of bathing, re-embalming, and temperature control. Originally, there were no plans to keep the body preserved and on display for over 90 years. But when Lenin was lying in state shortly after his death, he attracted such a high number of visitors that the government at the time decided to make him a permanent feature for the public to view.
2 The Elephant Man in United Kingdom
The “Elephant Man” was the popular name for Joseph Merrick, a Victorian man who suffered from Proteus syndrome which distorted his skeleton. He has become something of a legend in British and international culture, with several films and documentaries made about his life, condition, and public treatment at the time.
1 Albert Einstein’s Brain in United States
Scientists were interested in examining Albert Einstein’s brain after his death because he was revered as one of the most intelligent people in history. Just before his cremation, his brain was removed by Dr. Thomas Harvey so that it could be tested for evidence of what made Einstein so clever.
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