Experts reconstruct the face of Peru’s most famous mummy, a teenage Inca sacrificed in Andean snow

By FRANKLIN BRICEÑO
Associated Press

LIMA, Peru (AP) — A team of scientists has unveiled the possible living face of Peru’s most famous mummy, a teenage Inca girl sacrificed in a ritual more than 500 years ago atop the Andes. The silicone-made bust portrays a young woman with pronounced cheekbones, black eyes and tanned skin. Produced by a team of Polish and Peruvian scientists who worked with a Swedish sculptor specializing in facial reconstructions, it was presented Tuesday in a ceremony at the Andean Sanctuaries Museum of the Catholic University of Santa Maria in Arequipa. The mummy known as “Juanita” and the “Inca Ice Maiden” was found in 1995 at an altitude of more than 19,685 feet on the snow-capped Ampato volcano.