Scientists Assert 'Alien Mummies' in Peru are Really Dolls Made from Earthly Bones

An X-rays and study carried out by the Institute of Legal Medicine of Peru on the 'alien mummies' that concluded that they are dolls made with animal bones is displayed in Lima, Peru, January 12, 2024. REUTERS/Sebastian Castaneda
An X-rays and study carried out by the Institute of Legal Medicine of Peru on the 'alien mummies' that concluded that they are dolls made with animal bones is displayed in Lima, Peru, January 12, 2024. REUTERS/Sebastian Castaneda
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Scientists Assert 'Alien Mummies' in Peru are Really Dolls Made from Earthly Bones

An X-rays and study carried out by the Institute of Legal Medicine of Peru on the 'alien mummies' that concluded that they are dolls made with animal bones is displayed in Lima, Peru, January 12, 2024. REUTERS/Sebastian Castaneda
An X-rays and study carried out by the Institute of Legal Medicine of Peru on the 'alien mummies' that concluded that they are dolls made with animal bones is displayed in Lima, Peru, January 12, 2024. REUTERS/Sebastian Castaneda

A pair of "alien mummies" that mysteriously turned up at the airport in Peru's capital last October have entirely Earthly origins, according to a scientific analysis revealed on Friday.
The two small specimens were described as humanoid dolls by experts at a press conference in Lima, and likely fashioned from both human and animal parts. A separate three-fingered hand believed to be from Peru's Nazca region was also analyzed, with experts ruling out any connection to alien life, Reuters reported.
"They're not extraterrestrials. They're dolls made from animal bones from this planet joined together with modern synthetic glue," said Flavio Estrada, an archeologist with Peru's Institute for Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences.
"It's totally a made-up story," Estrada added.
The two figurines turned up in the Lima airport offices of courier DHL in a cardboard box, and were made to look like mummified bodies dressed in traditional Andean attire. Some media outlets subsequently speculated about possible alien origin.
Last September, two tiny mummified bodies with elongated heads and hands with three fingers were featured at a Mexican congressional hearing, generating widespread media coverage. Mexican journalist and UFO enthusiast Jaime Maussan claimed those bodies were about 1,000 years old and recovered from Peru in 2017, but not related to any known species.
Most experts later dismissed them as a fraud, possibly mutilated ancient human mummies combined with animal parts, but certainly from Earth.
At the Lima press conference on Friday, which was organized by Peru's culture ministry, experts did not say that the dolls found in the DHL office were related to the bodies presented in Mexico, and they stressed that the remains in Mexico are also not extraterrestrial.



Spain Foreign Tourist Numbers Break Record in Early 2025

FILE PHOTO: Tourists tour along the Puente Nuevo (New Bridge) on a hot summer day in Ronda, Spain July 4, 2023. REUTERS/Jon Nazca/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Tourists tour along the Puente Nuevo (New Bridge) on a hot summer day in Ronda, Spain July 4, 2023. REUTERS/Jon Nazca/File Photo
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Spain Foreign Tourist Numbers Break Record in Early 2025

FILE PHOTO: Tourists tour along the Puente Nuevo (New Bridge) on a hot summer day in Ronda, Spain July 4, 2023. REUTERS/Jon Nazca/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Tourists tour along the Puente Nuevo (New Bridge) on a hot summer day in Ronda, Spain July 4, 2023. REUTERS/Jon Nazca/File Photo

Spain welcomed a record 17 million foreign tourists in the first three months of 2025 as the buoyant sector drives an economy outshining European peers, official data showed on Monday.

The 17.1 million foreign tourists arriving in Spain from January to March was a 5.7-percent increase on the same period in 2024, the National Statistics Institute said.

Britain, France and Germany supplied the most holidaymakers to the world's second most-visited country, which last year hosted a record 94 million foreign tourists seeking its sun, beaches and culture, AFP reported.

Spending by foreign tourists also climbed 7.2 percent to 23.5 billion euros ($26.7 billion), the tourism ministry said in a statement, a welcome development for the government which wants visitors to splash more cash during their stay.

The tourist sector was one of the drivers of Spain's standout growth of 3.2 percent in 2024, well above the EU figure of one percent.

But the bonanza has sparked a growing backlash among locals who complain that an unsustainable influx of foreign visitors is driving up rents, saturating infrastructure and changing the fabric of neighborhoods.

Spain aims to "diversify" destinations, make the sector less dependent on key seasons and "share out the benefits" across the country, Tourism Minister Jordi Hereu said in a statement.