After thousands of years in the afterlife you might expect to stink like a moldy old scrotum, but as it turns out, ancient Egyptian mummies are still surprisingly easy on the nose. A credit to their embalmers,

Ancient Egyptian mummified bodies preserved for 5,000 years smell “woody”, “spicy” and “sweet”, according to scientists who used their own senses and electronic noses to examine them. Human “sniffers” were recited to describe the scent in terms of quality, intensity and pleasantness.

The team’s approach could inspire museums to entertain visitors with odorous features such as smellscapes. In fact, the researchers now plan to reconstruct the smell of ancient mummified bodies in order to share this nontraditional approach to studying Egyptian mummies, as well as highlight an ancient olfactory heritage.

Learn how unpacking olfactory elements helps researchers understand mummy preservation techniques, and how you could one day smell a mummy yourself.

Study shows mummification process left preserved remains smelling sweet and woody In a nutshell Ancient Egyptian mummies emit surprisingly pleasant scents characterized by woody, spicy, and sweet notes,

We know what they look like, and even sound like, but there’s one question you might not have pondered: what do ancient Egyptian mummies smell like? Whether you wanted to know or not, scientists have now given us an answer.