The 500 Year - old Frozen Inca girl.

This 15 yr-old Inca girl was sacrificed 500 years ago on mount Llullaillaco (in Northern Argentina) to the sun god along with two other children.
 She has been lying all through the centuries frozen in ice until she was  discovered in 1999 by a team who battled  for 3 days to reach the summit 220,000ft above sea level. They were found with an extraordinary collection of gold silver, shell statues and pots containing food.

The frozen body was reported to be among the best preserved mummies ever found, with internal organs intact, blood still present in the heart and lungs, skin and facial features almost intact. She looked as though she just recently died. There was no special preservation done on her, the cold and the dry air kept her frozen.

The Inca people were of the Incan empire, largest empire in pre- Columbian America. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was located in Cusco in modern-day Peru.

Ritual killings were common in the Incan culture. It is believed that the maiden was chosen for her beauty and sacrificed to the sun god in a ceremony called capacocha. According to Johan Reinhard, a U.S archaeologist and expedition member, children were chosen as sacrifices because  they were considered to be the most pure. Being sacrificed was considered to be a great honour, a transition to a better life from where they would communicate with the humans through shamans (holy men)

Since the discovery, the body has been kept in freezers. Scientists have been carrying out series of test and research on it.
What a scary sight to behold at a museum, a 500 years old mummified girl sitting cross-legged in a freezer in her brown dress, her long hair woven into many fine braids as she sleeps forever...I’m having a chill down my spine already, hope I don’t see her in my dreams tonight.
by Chioma.

(Photos courtesy daily mail .com & easyfun. my)