While all the royal mummies found in the 19th and 20th centuries have long since been opened for study, Amenhotep I (pictured in the statue above) is the exception because it is so immaculately wrapped – decorated with flower garlands, and with a face and neck that is covered by a lifelike facemask inset with colourful stones.
But researchers at the Egyptian Mummy Project have now finally peered inside the mummy for the first time in three millennia.
The previous time was in the 11th century BCE, more than four centuries after his original mummification and burial. Hieroglyphics have described how during the later 21st dynasty, priests restored and reburied royal mummies from more ancient dynasties, to repair the damage done by grave robbers.
The pharaoh's mummy, showing his shrunken skull and skeleton within the bandages...