Mummies have been scaring people in films for years but truth be told they’re pretty gross to uncover. Just yesterday in Egypt, scientists uncovered a mummy’s sarcophagus that dated back to 332 B.C. right after Alexander the Great conquered the area.
According to Live Science , the sarcophagus contained “three skeletons that may be the remains of soldiers lying in a pool of reddish sewage.” That red sewage sparked a weird little crazy on the internet that we’re here to shut down.
A petition was created on change.org advocating to let people drink the “red liquid from the dark sarcophagus.” Over 2,100 people have signed it and the number continues to increase each second. It’s unclear whether or not the petition is a joke because all it says is: “we need to drink the red liquid from the cursed dark sarcophagus in the form of some sort of carbonated energy drink so we can assume its powers and finally die” but people are taking it pretty seriously.
Live Science spoke to microbiologist Rolf Halden, a professor, and director of the Center for Environmental Health Engineering at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute and he says “something bad” would happen to you if you drink the sewage of a decaying body.
Live Science said that a decaying body “contains a ton of microorganisms, and some of them are potentially dangerous. There are most likely viruses, bacteria and other pathogens in that liquid, including some bacteria that can form ‘endospores,’ which are extremely tough to kill. Spores are known to survive in decaying specimens for thousands, and even millions, of years.”
Halden explained, “if anyone really needs to drink this, the material really needs to be sterilized.”
According to another Live Science article, this is the largest sarcophagus found in Alexandria, Egypt coming in at 9 feet long, 5 feet wide and 6 feet tall. The three mummies found are assumed to be soldiers of Egypt’s antiquities ministry.
Unfortunately, no inscriptions or work of art was found in the tomb, fortunately, no mummy curses have been released and the scientists are still alive.
Ultimately, if you find yourself thirsty in Egypt, we hear the water is fine but stay away from the mummy juice. Maybe watch The Mummy or Indiana Jones if you want to see some mummy powers instead.
