Rosalia Lombardo: The Mummy That Blinks

Rosalia Lombardo was only two years old when she died from pneumonia in 1920.

Her little cheeks are stiff puffy.

Tuffs of blonde hair are gathered around a knot above her head and tied by a silk bow.

Even her internal organs are intact, as revealed by X-ray scans.

Rosalias perfectly preserved body is only part of the attraction.

Visitors who come to see her swear that the little girl actually blinks here eyes.

These sequence of pictures show her eyelids eerily opening and closing by a fraction of an inch.

Its thought that changes in temperature inside the crypt causes her eyelids to contract producing the blinking effect.

But Capuchin Catacombss curator, Dario Piombino-Mascali, has a different theory.

Piombino-Mascali realized that Rosalias eyes are not completely closed and never were.

But his real discovery was the secret formula Alfredo Salafia had used to keep Rosalias body in impeccable condition.

Each ingredient in the concoction performed a unique job.

The sleeping beauty is one of eight thousand mummies in the Capuchin Catacombs of Sicily.

It was one of the last corpses to be admitted to the catacombs.

Photo credit: unknown

A team of researchers performing X-ray on Rosalias body.

Photo credit:Nat Geo

The X-ray of Rosalia showing her brain and liver intact.

The grid is of the coffin beneath the body.

Photo credit:Owlcation

This X-ray clearly shows Rosalia’s arms and feet.

Photo credit:Owlcation

Photo credit: losangeles1947

Photo credit: Planete Animale

Sources:Road Trippers/Owlcation/Science Alert/Wikipedia/Nat Geo