Computerised tomography (CT) scans and X-ray photographs of the body inside the mummy revealed that this was no ancient corpse but a woman who had died in the recent past, and that her neck was broken. So it began to look like the mummy was not the princess she was supposed to be perhaps she was a more ordinary ancient mummy dressed up to be a Persian princess by forgers trying to increase her value.Īs scientists investigated more closely, it became clear that this mummy had an even darker history. Several detailed operations common to Egyptian mummifications had been omitted. And there were peculiarities in the way she had been mummified. The inscriptions on the mummy's breastplate had some grammatical errors. However, there were some strange puzzles about this beautiful princess. Mummification to preserve bodies had always been thought to be unique to the ancient Egyptians. In fact, no Persian mummy had ever been found before, let alone a royal mummy. The Persian princess was immediately hailed as a major archaeological discovery. The mummy was found in a house in the desert region of Pakistan during a police raid, after a tip-off that it was to be illegally sold on the antiquities black market for $20m, and smuggled out of Pakistan.

Horizon follows the story as forensic experts all over the globe analyse the mummy and her magnificent trappings and discover that she is an elaborate fake with a terrible secret. When the curator from the Karachi National Museum, Dr Asma Ibrahim, began her investigations into the mummy, a different story began to emerge.

It was the find of a lifetime, one of the most magnificent ancient treasures ever to be unearthed in the area. Her cloth-bound body was dressed with golden artefacts, with an inscription on her breastplate that read, 'I am the daughter of the great King Xerxes, I am Rhodugune.' All the internal organs had been taken out of her body, in the same way that the ancient Egyptians mummified their dead. She was encased in a carved stone coffin, inside a wooden sarcophagus and was wearing an exquisite golden crown and mask. In November 2000, the international press reported an amazing find: a mummy, which was claimed to be that of an ancient Persian princess, over 2,600 years old. First shown: BBC Two 9.00pm Thursday 20 September 2001

Persian mummy witj gold eye