The 700-year-old mummy was found in the city of Taizhou, in Jiangsu Province in 2011
These incredible pictures show a 700-year-old mummy, which was discovered by chance – by road workers – in excellent condition in eastern China.
The corpse of the high-ranking woman believed to be from the Ming Dynasty – the ruling power in China between 1368 and 1644 – was stumbled across by a team who were looking to expand a street.
And the mummy, which was found in the city of Taizhou, in the Jiangsu Province, along with two other wooden tombs, offers a fascinating insight into life as it was back then.
Discovered two metres below the road surface, the woman’s features – from her head to her shoes – have retained their original condition, and have hardly deteriorated.
When the discovery was made by the road workers, late last month, Chinese archaeologists, from the nearby Museum of Taizhou, were called into excavate the area, the state agency Xinhua News reported.
They were surprised by the remarkably good condition of the woman’s skin, hair, eyelashes and face. It was as though she had only recently died.
Oh mother! The woman, discovered two metres below the surface in a wooden tomb, was wearing a Ming Dynasty dress and is thought to have been at a high-ranking level
Immersed: The mummy was found by road workers, and had been preserved in a brown liquid
Bejewelled: The right hand of the 700-year-old mummy shows her preserved skin, and a ring adorns her finger
Wonderfully preserved: This close up of the mummy’s shoes shows how well preserved her corpse it
Raised: The group of archaeologists, from the Museum of Taizhou, are shown lifting the corpse out of the coffins to examine their find
Exciting find: A map of the Ming Dynasty (left) – two other wooden coffins were also discovered
