Chauchilla Family Tomb - stock photo

Chauchilla Cemetery is a necropolis that contains prehispanic mummified human remains and archeological artifacts, located thirty kilometers south of the city of Nazca in Peru.The bodies are so remarkably preserved due mainly to the dry climate in the Peruvian Desert but the funeral rites were also a contributing factor. The bodies were clothed in embroidered cotton and then painted with a resin and kept in purposely built tombs made from mud bricks. The resin is thought to have kept out insects and slowed bacteria trying to feed on the bodies.