A 3,000-year-old mummy on the way to West Palm Beach for a CT scan as part of a South Florida Science Center exhibit is stuck in U.S. Customs. (Handout photo.)
And you thought your last trip through customs was a slog.
Try being the 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy who got stuck in U.S. Customs on its way to a West Palm Beach area hospital for a CT scan.
The mummy is part of the upcoming exhibit, “Afterlife: Tombs & Treasures of Ancient Egypt,” opening Oct. 11 at the South Florida Science Center and Aquarium in West Palm Beach.
As part of the exhibit, the mummy of this 9-year-old girl was to have had a full medical workup, including a CT scan at Palm Beach Children’s Hospital at St. Mary’s Medical Center, to reveal her cause of death. A hospital videographer was to record the test today and the findings were to be announced on Oct. 2, with hospital staff on hand to discus the exam.
“We just heard that the mummy is stuck in customs,” museum spokeswoman Meredith Westheimer said. “We are looking forward to rescheduling. We just don’t have a confirmed date and time until we learn more about the schedule to get out of customs.”
Instead, the mummy will have to wait a little longer than three millennia as customs agents check her paperwork, she said.
The “Afterlife” exhibit has been on tour for more than 10 years and been seen by more than 4.5 million people worldwide, immersing audiences in the sights and sounds ancient Egypt. The piece de resistance is a full-size reconstruction of the burial chamber of Pharaoh Thutmose III. The mummified girl is one of several mummies in the exhibit.
