The Mystery of the Persian Mummy

In November 2000, the international press reported an amazing find: a mummy, which was claimed to be that of an ancient Persian princess, over 2,600 years old. She was encased in a carved stone coffin, inside a wooden sarcophagus and was wearing an exquisite golden crown and mask. All the internal organs had been taken out of her body, and an inscription on her breastplate read, "I am the daughter of the great King Xerxes, I am Rhodugune."

It was the find of a lifetime, one of the most magnificent ancient treasures ever to be unearthed in the area. No Persian mummy had ever been found before, let alone a royal mummy. Mummification to preserve bodies had always been thought to be unique to the ancient Egyptians.  However, when the curator from the Karachi National Museum, Dr Asma Ibrahim, began her investigations into the mummy, a different story began to emerge.  TV6 follows the story as forensic experts all over the globe analyse the mummy and her magnificent trappings and discover that she is an elaborate fake with a terrible secret.