FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A winter snowbird arriving in South Florida is usually no big deal, unless, of course, they're 2,300 years old.
Fort Lauderdale's Museum of Discovery and Science welcomed Annie the mummy to her temporary home Wednesday morning.
"To be in the presence of a mummy and feel that sort of sacredness is a little bit overwhelming," the museum's CEO, Kim Cavenish, said. "I find it very exciting, and I think it will be for our visitors, as well."
Annie will be part of the museum's upcoming Lost Egypt: Ancient Secrets exhibit that will offer a close-up look at a culture thousands of years old.
The new exhibit will open Feb. 4 and last through April 30.
Annie, who was is on loan from the Academy of Natural Science of Drexel University, lived during the Ptolemaic Period (305-30 BCE). The date of her discovery is unknown, but she first appeared on records in the spring of 1885.
Scientists believe Annie was a teenager when she died, and believe that her cause of death was drowning in the Nile River.
"Her life might have been just like our lives," Mimi Leveque, of the Peabody Essex Museum, said. "If you look, she's got these lovely little sandals on. They're exactly like the flip flops kids wear today. She's got this beautiful pedicure with little white toe nails. I mean, she's just like a normal teenage girl."
Visitors to the Lost Egypt exhibit will be able to see a prototype print of what Annie looks like under her wrappings, along with 65 other ancient Egyptian artifacts.
For more information about the museum and the Lost Egypt exhibit, visit www.mods.org.