Urumqi- Who would have thought there were many mummies found in Xinjiang, China. This mummy is created by accident because of natural factors. There is one mummy that was supposedly beautiful during his lifetime.
One of the mandatory destinations for the Muslim traveler who roamed the Silk Road in Xinjiang, China is to visit the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Museum. It lies in the middle of Urumqi City, the capital of Xinjiang.
Here a Muslim traveler can see traces of Islam in Xinjiang in the form of a Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority. They also see the history of the Silk Road, the traveling track and the past trade between China and India, Arabia and Europe.
Quoted from detikTravel visiting this museum on Saturday (05/05/2018) invited by State Council Information Office China and Information Office Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. From the front, this museum building looks big and modern with a semicircular curved shape and lots of glass.
There are 3 main rooms in this museum. The first is Memory on The History of The Western Region. The contents of history from ancient times to modern. Civilization in Xinjiang has been started since the Paleolithic era 50,000 years ago in nature in the Taklamakan Desert and Gobi Desert, grassland and Tianshan snowmobile.
There are many clay, metal and jade artifacts when the Xinjiang region is still referred to as Xi Yu aka Western Region. The coolest collection in this museum is in the second room of The Mortals From Last Millennium.
This is the location of dried corpses (dried corpses). They do not call it a mummy, because these bodies are not intended to be mummified.
"But because of the very dry climate of the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang, the corpse is preserved naturally," the museum said to us.
These bodies were excavated from ancient cemeteries scattered in several places in Xinjiang. The most unique is the body called the 'most beautiful mummy'. His name is Loulan Beauty from Tiebanhe Riverside.
This mummy was dug from the Tieban River Graveyard in north Lop-Nor in 1980. This body was present since 1800 BC, age about 45 years, height 152 cm, weight of mummies only 10.1 kg, blood type O.
What is unique is, in scientific tests it turns out this mummy is not from Asian ethnic but Europoid aka Nordic European race precisely "The reconstruction of his face produces a beautiful figure with a European face and red hair," said the guide.
Wow! It turns out that thousands of years ago living in the desert in Xinjiang is Europeans. This European-like mummy is also found in other ancient cemeteries such as Gumogou, Qiemo, Zhagunluke. Their hair is blonde or brown and red. It turns out their DNA is Celtic.
Then there is also a modified corpse from a more modern period in the Turpan-Hami Basin area. There are a number of ancient cemeteries namely Wupu, Yanghai, Subeixi and Astana from 3200 years ago to the Tang Dynasty. The corpse was buried along with artifacts such as wooden furniture, bones, saw land, copper and woven fabrics.
The famous mummy for Chinese history is Zhang Xiong who is called Emperor Wu Di's envoy from the Han Dynasty who ventured from China to Europe. This route is the embryo of the Silk Road.
Do not miss the third room in the form of displays of various ethnic minorities of Xinjiang culture. Satisfied around, tourists can stop by the souvenir shop and jade jewelry store. Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Museum is a must-go destination for Muslim travelers coming to Urumqi. Log in to this museum for free lho!
