Doorway to the 1885 Smithsonian Institution Building (The Castle), which originally housed all of the Institution's collections and remains its symbol. Photo by David Bjorgen, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Smithsonian opens its largest mummy exhibit ever

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Doorway to the 1885 Smithsonian Institution Building (The Castle), which originally housed all of the Institution's collections and remains its symbol. Photo by David Bjorgen, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Doorway to the 1885 Smithsonian Institution Building (The Castle), which originally housed all of the Institution’s collections and remains its symbol. Photo by David Bjorgen, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Mummies have returned to the National Mall in a bigger home at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

The museum has opened its largest exhibition of ancient Egyptian mummies and artifacts in its history. “Eternal Life in Ancient Egypt” is a new permanent exhibit that includes more mummies than ever before on the National Mall.

Curators say the artifacts and new research tools will show how scientists have pieced together details on the lives of ancient Egyptians through their burial practices and rituals preparing for eternal life.

Two cases in the exhibit are focused on mummy science with techniques like CT scanning to see inside mummy cases.

The exhibit also includes mummified animals, including cats, raptors, crocodiles and snakes.

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National Museum of Natural History: http://www.mnh.si.edu

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-11-22-11 0525GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Doorway to the 1885 Smithsonian Institution Building (The Castle), which originally housed all of the Institution's collections and remains its symbol. Photo by David Bjorgen, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Doorway to the 1885 Smithsonian Institution Building (The Castle), which originally housed all of the Institution’s collections and remains its symbol. Photo by David Bjorgen, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

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