Swaying reeds line the Nile River as a breeze carries the scent of spices and ripening figs past obelisks and pyramids. Hieroglyphics, engraved into these monuments, tell tales of mighty pharaohs and battles.

Many people hope to see these marvels of Egypt one day, but the distance often proves to be too far. However, the Burke Museum will make this journey possible for a few short hours, through various artifacts, exhibits and lectures during the Mysteries of Ancient Egypt family event, Oct. 26.

The exhibit will feature Seattle’s only Egyptian mummy, nicknamed Nellie, who dates back about 2,000 years ago, to the Ptolemaic period.

“I’ve never actually experienced a public event when the mummy was on display,” said Allison Deep, archaeology collections assistant at the Burke. “The last time she was on display at the Burke Museum was in 2003.”

Nellie has been kept under wraps because of Washington’s climate and because of the previous care she received.

Brought to the museum in 1902 by former UW regent Manson Backus, Nellie has been exposed to more humidity damage in the past 106 years than the previous two millennia.

The coffin has noticeable paint peeling, but it is still possible to read some of the hieroglyphics describing the Book of the Dead. The name Khonfu, meaning “son of the moon god,” is still legible on some parts of the coffin.

“Manson Backus was in a show room in Cairo and purchased it,” said Laura Phillips, Burke archaeology collections manager. “The mummy wasn’t even in the same coffin when he bought it. He chose instead of having a mummy that fit a coffin to get a good representation of a coffin and mummy. We have always known they weren’t together.”

Over the years, Nellie has also deteriorated, but the extent of her ordeals wasn’t known until a CT scan was done in 1999 at the UW Medical Center. Normally used for research purposes, CT scans have uncovered many secrets hidden underneath the layers of linen-encased mummies, without jeopardizing the artifact through unwrapping.

The scan revealed several interesting aspects of Nellie’s infrastructure: including that she doesn’t have her own feet.

“One of them is actually a man’s foot, and the other one isn’t even bone. It’s a cast,” Deep said. “Most of her other bones have been removed as well, but the cranium and legs are still intact. The other bones are in storage at the museum because they are so fragile.”

In addition to storing the bones, the Burke Museum has two lotus bulbs from inside of Nellie that were found in 1916 when the outer wrapping started to come loose. Historically, a lotus bulb was a sign of eternal life in ancient Egypt.

Conservation work directed by Linda Roundhill, owner of Arts and Antiquities Conservation, coupled with CT scan results, showed that Nellie’s chest had been reinforced with chicken wire, filled with polyurethane and then strengthened with a metal rod running the length of her back.

It is believed that these changes were made in order to reinforce her collapsing chest cavity. Today, ethical reasons would have prevented this sort of tampering.

“Practices have changed so much over the years,” Deep said. “We would never take the insides out of a mummy. That’s not how conservation is done today.”

Instead of strictly preserving artifacts as was done in the past, today there is a greater emphasis placed on respecting the spiritual beliefs of the culture the artifact came from.

“There are a lot of reasons to consider the feelings of the community that the object originated from,” said Kelly Meyers, Burke archaeology collections coordinator. These artifacts came from their culture. So we have to ask ourselves, ‘Why do we keep these objects in the museum?’ Is it simply to have these pretty things or to maintain that cultural information?”

When Nellie’s CT scans revealed how much work was needed to preserve her fragile body, archeologists at the Burke Museum sought to find a way to integrate the curatorial aspect of her upkeep and the interpretative aspect of the display without offending the spiritual aspect of Nellie’s journey to the afterlife.

“Spiritually speaking, the reason for mummification was that the person could go into the afterlife and have all of their body parts,” Phillips said. “[Early archeologists] removed a lot of her bones. We did grapple with putting those things back in the mummy, but that again would be too damaging. We talked to some folks that worked in Egypt. They said as long as [the bones] are still in the same room, [Nellie] would be able to find all the parts for the next life.”

However, even if spiritual aspects were considered during conservation, the ultimate goal was to protect the mummy and coffin from more damage.

A custom-made, stainless-steel case, fitted with separate compartments for the coffin and the mummy, has an air-filtration system that protects them from harmful elements in the air and allows for the control of the relative humidity in the container.

“The design of the case was really to ensure long-term preservation,” Phillips said. “At this point, she is very well-conserved. We monitor both the environment of the coffin and the mummy. So far they have both really been stabilized.”

To further protect Nellie, she was sealed in a plastic bag containing oxygen scavengers. Oxygen scavengers are chemicals that eliminate oxygen in the environment. This prevents bacteria from growing and feeding on Nellie’s linens.

Although there was once talk about removing the polyurethane foam from Nellie’s chest cavity to restore her to her original state, that decision was eventually turned down.

“They have definitely done a lot for her,” Deep said. “But right now there aren’t any future plans for further conservation.”

Reach contributing writer Heather Milligan at features@dailyuw.com.