Calamaz

"The coffin is in a very bad condition, very deteriorated. We found many cracks, we found many missing parts, missing layers."

King Tutankhamun’s outer coffin is being restored for the Grand Egyptian Museum’s opening in late 2020.

The outermost coffin that once held the body of King Tutankhamun had never left the 3,300-year-old tomb since the time he was first laid to rest. Even after archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb in 1922, the wooden coffin remained in the Valley of the Kings — until now.

Earlier this year, the Getty Conservation Institute and the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities finished a nearly 10-year-long restoration of Tut’s tomb. Now, wrote The Los Angeles Times, they’ll restore his outer coffin, removing it from its resting place and allowing experts to finally get a good look.

The intricate project is largely motivated by the impending opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in 2020, which will overlook the Pyramids of Giza.

In addition to the three coffins that house Tut’s body, this exhibit will also showcase the numerous relics discovered in his tomb. The innermost coffin is made of solid gold, while the outer two coffins are crafted in wood and covered in gold, along with several semiprecious stones.

Carter’s original discovery of Tut’s resting place in the Valley of the Kings was the first time that a royal tomb from the time of ancient Egypt had been discovered so remarkably intact. It contained a plethora of stunning royal treasures as well, such as a dagger made from meteorite.

Two of the three coffins were later transported to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo while the outer coffin was left in the king’s tomb. Only in July, 97 years later, was the casket removed under intense security in order for it to be fumigated for three weeks.

With careful yet thorough restoration now underway, experts have had the rare opportunity to inspect the outer coffin up close and reveal photos for all to see.

Restoration of the outer coffin will take at least eight months, Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Anany said.

Given the damage to the coffin that experts have now seen, however, it will take about eight months to restore it. Eissa Zeidan, the general director of First Aid Conservation and Transportation of Artifacts, said the coffin is about “30 percent damaged” due to the heat and humidity inside the tomb.

“The coffin is in a very bad condition, very deteriorated,” said Zeidan. “We found many cracks, we found many missing parts, missing layers.”

Egypt’s Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Anany confirmed as much when he said the coffin was in a “very fragile” state, with repair work being top priority. The 7-foot, 3-inch-long coffin has been safely kept in one of the 17 laboratories within the new museum.

Restorers have been working on numerous items found in King Tut’s tomb, of which there are more than 5,000 — all of which will be showcased at the Grand Egyptian Museum. With more than 75,000 square feet of real estate, it’ll be the biggest museum on Earth exclusively dedicated to one civilization.

A woman looks at the golden sarcophagus belonging to Tut, who died at the age of 19.

Restoration of King Tut’s tomb came after years of tourists trudging through the majestic heritage site. Both the Getty Conservation Institute and Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities committed to the extensive revamp nearly a decade ago and finally finished in January.

Their efforts included installing an air filtration and ventilation system to regulate the humidity, carbon dioxide, and dust levels inside. Lighting, as well as new platforms from which tourists can see the sarcophagus, were added too.

The linen-wrapped mummy of King Tutankhamun, displayed in his climate-controlled glass case in the underground tomb KV62.

Of greatest concern were the strange brown spots on the tomb’s paintings, which suggested microbial growth in the room. These were found to have been mere discolorations due to fungus that had been there since the tomb’s discovery.

Thankfully, neither fungus nor anything else has taken down Tut’s tomb. Now, after a long period of restoration, it will live on for many more visitors to see. And after the most recent restoration of the outermost coffin, visitors will have the most complete picture yet of how the boy king was buried.

When work on the pharaoh’s gilded coffin concludes and the Grand Egyptian Museum officially opens, it will be the first time in history that King Tut’s three coffins will be on display together.

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Nela Zisser, the former Miss Earth New Zealand and a medical student, still found time to be an eating champ.

Guinness World Records on Wednesday posted video of her setting the mark for most chicken nuggets consumed in a minute. (Watch the clip below.)

The clip showed Zisser devouring the fast food favorite in real time during an attempt in Auckland, New Zealand. She slowed at the end as if she’d bitten off more than she could chew but still gulped down a record 298 grams (10.5 ounces). The record is measured by weight but for those counting, she had 16 nuggets.

Zisser, 28, said previously she had to eat at least 200 grams for the record, her first Guinness achievement, which she accomplished last month.

Zisser, who has 252,000 subscribers to her YouTube channel, has conquered several other challenges for gut-wrenching gluttonous glory. 

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The longest snake - ever (captivity) is Medusa, a reticulated python (python reticulatus), and is owned by Full Moon Productions Inc. in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. When measured on 12 October 2011, she was found to be 7.67 meters (25 ft 2 in) long. Medusa also holds the current 'Longest Snake - Living (captivity)' title.

In Kansas City, Missouri, USA, those who look directly at Medusa may not do that – but they certainly come to a stone cold stop.

That’s because the Medusa you find at the city’s Full Moon Productions isn’t some mythological figure of yore. It’s the longest snake ever in captivity.

Medusa, a reticulated python, clocked in at 7.67 meters (25 feet, 2 inches) long in its official world record measurement, on October 12, 2011.

Reticulated pythons – named as such because of the grid-like pattern of its skin – are on average the world’s longest snakes, but adults normally grow an average of between 3-6 m (or, 10-20 ft).

But there is nothing normal about Medusa.

The 10-year-old snake required 15 men to hold her at full length in order for her record measurement to be taken, and her diet consists of a combination of rabbits, hogs, and deer served biweekly. She’s been known to eat a whole, 18-kg (40-lb) deer in one sitting. Medusa herself weighs 158.8 kg (350 lbs).

Reticulated pythons primarily populate southeast Asia, Indonesia, and the Philippines and are also known as great swimmers. In 1912, a specimen shot in Sulawesi measured a jaw-dropping 10 m (32 ft 10 in). However, unlike Medusa, the unnamed animal was never kept alive in captivity.

Medusa is currently housed at “The Edge of Hell Haunted House” in Kansas City. Her handlers say she can actually tell when it’s “showtime” for patrons, as she will go into what they call performance mode. During this time, Medusa will stay completely still for those passing by to get a full glimpse of her in her record-stretching glory.

For those passing through the American Midwest, Medusa is surely a showstopping addition to any itinerary. A helpful hint: she is known to purr like a cat when she’s happy and hiss when she’s angry. Considering the size of this incredible creature, we recommend slithering away yourself if the purring ever stops.

The previous record holder was reticulated python (Python reticulatus) Fluffy. When measured on 30 September 2009, she was found to be over 7.3 m (24 ft) long.

Fluffy sadly died at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Powell, Ohio, USA, on 26 Oct 2010 due to an apparent tumor. She was 18 years old and still 24 foot long. 

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From jungles to tropical islands, here are eight tribes whose traditions will pique your curiosity.

They're hidden in the deepest, darkest corners of the Earth – or in the vast, remote plains of Africa. Tiny pockets of people whose customs, dress and traditions have remained decidely anachronistic.

While they may only don traditional dress or use ancient hunting methods on special occasions these days, there's no question that the people in these pictures live a lot closer to their old way of life than the average.

Meet eight incredible indigenous tribes – and see what makes them unique.

Huli Wigmen, Papua New Guinea

Location: Tari Highlands, Papua New Guinea

This tribe’s incredible hats are actually made from their own hair, with men in this isolated 40,000-strong group ‘harvesting’ their mane for their own use or to sell to others. They combine these with yellow face paint, a clawed axe, an apron of leaves and a belt of dangling pigtails to intimidate rival tribes. Traditionally, they perform a classic bird dance, mimicking the birds of paradise found on the island.

Future outlook: Successfully blending modern and traditional life, many now wear Western-style clothing and are embracing tourism as a way to keep their tradition alive.

Dogon, West Africa

Location: Mali, West Africa

Using ropes made of baobab bark, men traditionally scale the formidable Bandiagara cliffs to collect pigeon or bat guano, which is sold as fertiliser, and Tellem artefacts, which are sold to Western art collectors. More than 400,000 live in around 700 little villages precariously perched all the way along the 200km cliff escarpment.

Future outlook: The tribe thrived on tourism dollars, but recent unrest has reduced visitors and poor crop harvests are making life much harder.

Chimbu Skeleton Dancers, Papa New Guinea

Location: Chimbu Province, Papua New Guinea

It may be a look we're familiar with, but this tribe’s skeleton dances originated to intimidate enemy tribes in what is a hotly-contested and highly-territorial country. They are so remote that little is known about their real lives, but it is understood they live in a temperate climate in rugged mountain valleys between 1,600 and 2,400m, traditionally in male-female segregated houses but increasingly sharing as families.

Future outlook: Slowly increasing tourism interaction means dances are starting to be done more as shows by community-integrated people, than by the more remote in a traditional setting.

Nenet, Siberia

Location: Yamal Peninsula, Siberia

This group of around 10,000 nomads are pretty hardy – they move 300,000 reindeer on a 1,100km migration around an area one-and-a-half times the size of France, in temperatures down to minus 50 degrees Celsius. They travel on sledges anointed with freshly-slaughtered reindeer blood, in trains that stretch up to 8km long. Despite discovery of oil and gas reserves in the 1970s, they are adapting well to increasing contact with the outside world.

Future outlook: Bucking the trend of dwindling global nomadic groups, they are adapting to the social, political and natural change around them.

Asaro mud men

Location: Goroka, Papua New Guinea

These mud-covered men are not aiming for the perfect complexion, they slap on the brown stuff because they believe it makes them look like spirits and it terrifies the other indigenous groups in the area. One of many groups scattered on the highland plateau for over a millennium, they are isolated by harsh terrain and were only discovered around 75 years ago.

Future outlook: Success as a tourist attraction has enlarged the tribe’s potential as a national symbol.

Himba herders, Namibia

Location: Namibia, Africa

Semi-nomadic, the Himba live scattered across northwest Namibia and southern Angola. When stationary, they live in tipi-shaped structures built with mud and dung. Curious fact: They keep an ancestral fire burning 24 hours a day in homage to their god Mukuru. Wealth is measured in cattle, but goat is a more regular part of the diet.

Future outlook: There's an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 members of the tribe left, but they're constantly threatened by new development. Nevertheless, many maintain their traditional lifestyle.

Kazakh golden eagle hunters

Location: Bayan-Olgii Province, Mongolia

They use eagles to hunt foxes, marmots and wolves and wear furs of the prey they catch, with boys starting at the age of 13, when they can prove they can carry the weight of a golden eagle. Semi-nomadic, they have been moving around the Altai Mountains since the 19th century. They now number around 100,000 people, but there are only around 250 eagle hunters left.

Future outlook: Because young men are being drawn away, females are starting to break into this masculine-dominated activity to keep it alive.

Bayaka, Central African Republic

Location: Southwest Rainforests, Central African Republic (CAR)

Living by the ‘Jengi’, the spirit of the forest, the Aya have rich knowledge of herbal medicine but use their own language and hunting traditions. They are one of a number of tribes in this remote area of Africa making up a population of half a million. However, elders now report they cannot teach the traditional skills because they can no longer go deep into the forest.

Future outlook: Many pygmy communities have lost their traditional livelihoods, having to give up lands to conservation projects and logging.

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How a petite Polish immigrant with perfectly manicured nails nailed an 8.6 metre monster.

A struggling immigrant family's lives were changed forever when the glamorous matriarch picked up a rifle and shot a crocodile between the eyes.

Krystyna 'Krys' Pawlowski had been crocodile hunting for two years when she shot the 8.6-metre monster in 1957 on the McCarther Bank in the Norman River, Queensland.

Hunters had tried to get this croc for decades and were astounded that a 'lady' did what no man could.

That shot would make the family famous because at 8.6 metres, the reptile was, and still is, the biggest ever killed or captured in Australia.

Krys's famous croc-hunting career started in 1955 in Kaumba, in Queensland's Gulf Country when a 12-foot reptile started creeping up on her three-year-old daughter, Barbara.

'My brother came out and saw it and yelled "Barbara, crocodile!" and my father grabbed a rifle and shot it between the eyes,' Krys's son George Pawlowski told Daily Mail Australia.

The Polish immigrants, who came to Australia in 1949 and had been struggling to get by, realised they'd struck gold when they took the beast to be skinned.  

Pictured: The 8.6-metre saltwater crocodile believed to be shot by Krystyna and Ron Pawlowski in 1955 at the Norman River, Karumba

'An old-timer in the town helped us skin the crocodile and we sent it off to a dealer in Brisbane and finished off getting 10 pounds for it,' Mr Pawlowski said. 

'In those days 13 pounds was the basic weekly wage, so Dad (Ron Pawlowski) thought they were on to something.'

Krys would go to find fame as 'One Shot', the petite 5'4'' crocodile hunter who would kill up to 10,000 reptiles over a 15-year hunting career with her husband - all while wearing long red nails. 

Legend had it the mother-of-three only missed three shots in her lifetime and was able to hit a moving crocodile with ease - despite having never fired a rifle before she arrived in Australia just six years before her famous crocodile kill. 

She was also able to skin the reptiles faster than anyone else, and she would usually do it right after the kill - on the spot amid the mangroves and mosquitoes.  source.

Krystyna 'Krys' Pawlowski (pictured) rose to fame in 1955 when a massive 8.6-metre saltwater crocodile came creeping towards her three-year-old daughter Barbara