The scent of the mummy. Research discovers ancient Egyptian remains smell nice

Researchers who sniffed mummified remains in the name of science were greeted more with a blessing than a curse. It turns out well-preserved Egyptian mummies actually smell pretty good. Researchers at University College London and the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia used both chemical analysis and a panel of human sniffers to evaluate the odors. They studied mummies as old as 5,000 years from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The results published Thursday in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. "Woody,” “spicy” and “sweet” were the top descriptions of what sounded more like a wine tasting than a mummy sniffing exercise.