![]() Apparently, for the last couple of months, Campbell has been working on an art show to highlight the connection between ancient Egypt and modern society, and his meat mummy is the centerpiece. You’re probably thinking Ben needs a better hobby, but you have to remember he’s not just some guy with nothing better to do, he’s some kind of artist, so he has a pretty good explanation for creating his unique McDonald’s food mummy. Only invertebrates, a few algae invertebrates and some fish that live near the edges of the lake can survive this environment.īen Campbell, a dude who refers to himself as “some kind of artist from west Texas”, sent us these photos of a life-size mummy he created out of about $200 worth of McDonald’s food. Flamingos sometime use the predator-free salt islands that sometimes form on the lake for nesting, but it’s a risky gamble, as the photos below clearly show. As soon as birds and bats plunge into the waters of lake Natron, the minerals start turning their flesh into stone and preserving them exactly as they were in their final moments. No animal can withstand this caustic environment and venturing into the alkaline environment is usually fatal. The lake’s alkalinity is similar to that of ammonia, with a pH between 9 and 10.5, and the temperature of the water can reach 60 ☌. It’s the same mineral the Egyptians used to preserve their mummies. Natron, which gives the lake its name, is a naturally occurring compound found in volcanic ash. He later found out something even more shocking – those were real animals calcified by the lake’s alkaline water. When photographer Nick Brandt first visited Lake Natron, in Northern Tanzania, he was shocked by the macabre animal statues he saw aligned across its shoreline. Once the mummy is ready, it is encased in a bronze or steel casket. Then come the layers of fiberglass bandages, which set the body in the desired position. About a dozen coats of polyurethane rubber are put on, which dry as tough as a tire. #Lake natron calcified animals color full#Then the body is hydrated for over 70 days in a tank full of chemicals that Corky Ra calls his ‘secret formula’.Īfter the soaking is complete, the body is doused in lanolin and wax, and covered in layers of cotton gauze. First, the blood is drained out of the body and the organs are taken out and cleansed. “We’re the only ones worldwide who do modern mummification,” he said. Summum’s mummification method is actually a lot more advanced than the ancient Egyptians’, taking only 90 days to complete. He now goes by Summum Bonum Amon Ra, or Corky Ra, for short. The company, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, was set up in 1975 by Claude Nowell. Summum Mummification Services is the only company of its kind in the world, perfectly preserving human and animal bodies after death. If the mummies of ancient Egypt fascinate you, then you are going to love this – you can sign up to be a mummified too. But the same cannot be said for San Bernardo, because bodies are buried in chambers above the ground (as is customary in Colombia) so they do not come into contact with the earth. The only other site in Latin America where natural mummification takes place is the Guanajuato, a town in central Mexico, where underground gas and soil conditions are the secret. Scientists have no idea why this is happening. #Lake natron calcified animals color skin#With the passage of time, the mummies’ clothes and skin have turned brown. “I liked the idea of keeping them for posterity,” he said. He said that the mummified bodies have been around since about 1957, but no one paid any attention to them. “I didn’t like stepping on them because they were humans like us so I started organizing them.” It’s only because of Eduardo’s efforts that the mummies are being talked about. “The burial pit was full of bodies,” he said. The phenomenon was first noticed 15 years ago, by grave digger Eduardo Cifuentes. The ancient Egyptians spent centuries developing their mummifying techniques, but at a cemetery in San Bernardo, a small Colombian town, corpses somehow become naturally mummified in their coffins. ![]()
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