Mummies

'Mummies of the World' Where: California Science Center in Exposition Park, two blocks west of the Harbor Freeway at the Exposition Boulevard exit When: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily through Nov. 28 Price: Adults $19.50, teens and seniors $16.50, children 4-12 $12.50, children younger than 3 free (Discounts for museum members) Info: Advance reservations highly recommended; can be made online at http://www.californiasciencecenter.org or by calling (323) SCIENCE

A well-dressed miller from Hungary, a 6,500-year-old child found in Peru, a baby crocodile — these aren't your mother's mummies. You can see all three of them, along with more than 40 others, at the world premiere of "Mummies of the World," starting Thursday at the California Science Center. Don't worry, there are a few linen-wrapped Egyptian mummies too. But this exhibit isn't limited to one ancient civilization. Made up of specimens lent from 20 international institutions, it showcases the incredible variety of mummies, highlighting how they're created and all that can be learned from these relics of the past.

Strange that no horror movie ever featured these creatures from the crypts of ancient Egypt — crocodile mummies. The toothy reptiles were embalmed and wrapped in worship of the crocodile god Sobek, and two painstakingly preserved 2,000-year-old specimens are now on display at UC Berkeley in an ancient Egypt exhibit that marks a sharp departure from touring King Tut spectacles. Berkeley's show at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology is free, small and devoid of crowds.

The Taklimakan Desert in northern China is one of the largest in the world -- vast and inhospitable, and its howling winds were once thought the cries of ghosts and demons. Yet since ancient times, travelers have braved its edges, some engaging in the East-West trade that eventually earned the routes a fabled name, the Silk Road. This weekend, the Bowers Museum opens an exhibition featuring about 150 artifacts from the area, "Secrets of the Silk Road: Mystery Mummies of China" (through July 25)

Industrial development in northwest China has gradually unearthed a surprising past -- a 4,000-year-old civilization of farmers and herders with European, rather than Asian, ancestry. These ancient people eked out a living in the arid lands north of Tibet now known as the Tarim Basin. Chinese construction crews have found mummies nearly every year over the last three decades. Three of the mummies will be on view at Santa Ana's Bowers Museum as part of the exhibition "Secrets of the Silk Road: Mystery Mummies from China," which opens Saturday.

On display for the first time outside of Asia, Secrets of the Silk Road features more than 150 objects, including mummies and other archaeological items found buried in the parched sands of the Tarim Basin in the far Western Xinjiang Uygur region of China. Bowers Museum, 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. Through July 25. Weekends adult $20, children $18; weekdays adult $18, children $16. (714) 567-3600. www.bowers.org.

CT scans of Egyptian mummies, some as much as 3,500 years old, show evidence of atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, which is normally thought of as a disease caused by modern lifestyles, researchers said Tuesday. The study, presented at the American Heart Assn. meeting in Orlando, Fla., was conceived by Dr. Gregory Thomas, a cardiologist at UC Irvine, after he read about Pharoah Merenptah at the Egyptian National Museum of Antiquities in Cairo. When he died at age 60 in 1203 BC, Merenptah was plagued by atherosclerosis, arthritis and dental decay.