2,000-Year-Old Mystery

What's Inside This 2,000-Year-Old Mystery Sarcophagus?

More importantly, why are people petitioning to drink its sewage juice?

By Laura Yan

Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities.

Scientists have finally decided to open the mysterious, 2,000 year old, massive black sarcophagus discovered in Alexandria, Egypt, which the Internet has been speculating wildly about. Could it hold the remains of Alexander the Great? Could it unleash a curse or an incurable disease?


It turns out, the sarcophagus held the remains of three skeletons, as well lots of reddish, ancient sewage water. LiveScience reports that scientists are just starting their analysis of the skeletons. One skeleton seemingly suffered an arrow wound, which suggests the trio might have been soldiers. So far, the sarcophagus has not revealed any inscriptions, art, or artifacts buried with the skeletons. And it’s still a mystery why the skeletons were buried in such a massive sarcophagus: at almost nine feet long, five feet wide and six feet tall, the sarcophagus is the largest ever found in Alexandria.

Now, almost 7,500 people have signed a change.org petition requesting to drink the sewage liquid from the ancient sarcophagus. Experts suggest that this is not a good idea. Sewage contains potentially dangerous microorganisms, including viruses, bacteria and other pathogen. Some bacteria can form endospores, which can survive in decaying specimens for thousands, or even millions of years, microbiologist Rolf Halden, a professor and director of the Center for Environmental Health Engineering at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute, told Livescience.

Not that it's likely to deter the people who might want to drink the sewage liquid. “We need to drink the red liquid from the cursed dark sarcophagus in the form of some sort of carbonated energy drink so we can assume its powers and finally die,” mummy-juice petition starter, Innes McKendrick writes.

(via Livescience)