"La Doncella" (The Maiden,) this amazingly well-preserved mummy of a 15-year-old Inca girl, was put on display to thousands of museum-goers in Salta, Argentina recently.
She was found along with the corpses of a 6-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy (not on display) in an "icy pit on Llullaillaco volcano" in 1999. The three human sacrifices are believed to have been "sacrificed more than 500 years ago in a ceremony marking the annual corn harvest."
"Dressed in fine clothes and given corn alcohol to put them to sleep, the victims were then left to die at an elevation of 22,080 feet."
The children, dubbed the "Children of Llullaillaco" were "found at the highest elevation ever discovered for sacrificial victims of the former Inca empire."
We live in a fascinating world.
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