A mummy seller in Egypt doses off next to his wares, Cario 🇪🇬 c. 1875
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Napoleon’s first expedition into Egypt in 1798 piqued European curiosity and allowed 19th-century travelers to Egypt to bring whole mummies back to Europe bought off the street in Egypt. A big reason for this interest in mummies was their use in Victorian-age medicine, where mummy flesh was believed to cure anything from bubonic plague to a headache.