Her Father Wanted Her To Live Forever - Story of the "Sleeping Beauty of Palermo"

Known as the "Sleeping Beauty of Palermo," the impeccably preserved body of Rosalia Lombardo is among the most remarkable mummies in the world.

When Lombardo died in 1920 just a to her second birthday, her heartbroken father took her to an embalmer and asked him to make her appear as if she would "live forever" before laying her in a glass-topped coffin and entombing her in the Capuchin catacombs beneath the Sicilian capital.

The embalmer used a secret zinc mixture to petrify her body and even posed her with her eyes slightly open so that she would appear as if she was either just falling asleep or waking up from a nap.

In fact, this illusion is so convincing that some mourners who come to visit her still swear that her eyes opened and closed throughout the day, revealing beautiful blue irises beneath her delicate eyelids.