Fabrizio Villa/Getty ImagesRosalia Lombardo's mummy in the Capuchin Catacombs in Palermo, Sicily.

Deep within a dark catacomb in Sicily, a young girl lies in a glass-topped coffin. Her name is Rosalia Lombardo, and she died in 1920 from pneumonia due to the Spanish Flu, just a week before her second birthday.

Her father's grief was so profound that he sought the help of a mummy maker and taxidermist to preserve his child. A renowned Sicilian preservation expert, Alfredo Salafia, embalmed Rosalia Lombardo so perfectly that her internal organs are still intact a century later.

Indeed, it's hard to look at the small body in the glass coffin and not believe she might awaken at any moment. Her skin is still smooth and porcelain-like, and her golden hair is neatly tied with a large silk ribbon. And most eerily, her blue irises are visible between her golden eyelashes.

This method of preservation has led to her being known as the "mummy that opens her eyes" — because some people claim that Rosalia Lombardo's eyes still open and close throughout the day.

Rosalia Lombardo's Eyes Appearing to Open

Rosalia Lombardo's eyes have fed Sicilian legends for the last 100 years. She is one of the 8,000 mummies found in the catacombs beneath the Capuchin monastery in Palermo, Sicily. And many of the thousands of visitors flocking to see the golden-haired girl report that they have seen her eyes slowly opening.

Fabrizio Villa/Getty ImagesPaleopathologist and mummy expert Dario Piombino-Mascali with the body of Rosalia Lombardo in Palermo.

In fact, a time-lapse photo's video component seems to show Lombardo's eyes slightly opening.

This has ignited the internet with stories of the mummy that can open her eyes, but in 2009, Italian paleopathologist Dario Piombino-Mascali debunked the main myth surrounding Rosalia Lombardo.

"This is an optical illusion created by light filtering through the side windows, which is subject to change throughout the day," he said in a statement to ScienceAlert.

Piombino-Mascali made this discovery when he noticed that museum staff had moved the mummy's coffin; this caused it to shift slightly and allowed her eyelids to appear more open than ever before. "They are not completely closed, and in fact, they never were," he said. Thus, when the light changes and hits her eyes from different angles, it can create the illusion that her eyes are opening.

A Master Mummy Maker Preventing the Change of Rosalia Lombardo's Body

Additionally, Dario Piombino-Mascali managed to uncover the mysterious formula used for Lombardo's perfect preservation.

Wikimedia CommonsRosalia Lombardo's eyes appear to be opening due to a play of light reflecting off her half-closed eyelids since she was embalmed in 1920.

When Rosalia Lombardo's embalmer, Alfredo Salafia, died in 1933, he took the secret formula to the grave. Piombino-Mascali found the mummy maker's living relatives and uncovered a treasure trove of his documents. Among the documents was a handwritten memoir in which Salafia recorded the chemicals he injected into Rosalia's body: formalin, zinc salts, alcohol, salicylic acid, and glycerin.

Formalin is a mixture of formaldehyde and water that is now commonly used by embalmers to eliminate bacteria. Salafia was one of the first to use this chemical for embalming corpses. Alcohol, along with the dry climate of the catacombs, dried out Lombardo's body. Glycerin prevented her body from drying out too much, and salicylic acid inhibited the growth of fungi.

However, according to Melissa Johnson Williams, executive director of the American Society of Mummy Makers, zinc salts were a critical component in maintaining her extraordinary state of preservation. Zinc, a chemical no longer used by embalmers, essentially petrified her small body.

"Zinc gave her rigidity," Williams told National Geographic. "If you took her out of the coffin and supported her, she would stand on her own." The embalming process was simple; it was performed without any drainage or cavity treatment, just a single-point injection.

The Mummy That Opens Her Eyes Today

Rosalia Lombardo was one of the last people buried in the Capuchin catacombs, which have since closed to new burials. The more than 8,000 burials in the catacombs date back to 1500 and include nobles, clergy, and the bourgeoisie of the city. However, Rosalia's case is much more special due to her preservation.

Her father reportedly ordered the mummy maker to "keep her alive forever," according to the catacombs' website. And since the catacombs opened to the public, she has been recognized as "the most beautiful mummy in the world" and even earned the nickname "The Sleeping Beauty of Palermo."

Today, Rosalia Lombardo is preserved in a new nitrogen-filled glass case designed to protect the remains of this young girl from oxygen, light, and even tourists; you only need to pay €3 to visit the catacombs.

Wikimedia CommonsRosalia Lombardo's coffin is now inside a protective glass case.

"It is designed to prevent the passage of any bacteria or fungi. Thanks to a special film, it also protects against the effects of light," said paleopathologist Dario Piombino-Mascali.

Now, Piombino-Mascali hopes that tourists will stop fabricating "completely unfounded stories" about Rosalia Lombardo, "the mummy that opens her eyes."