An ancient Egyptian mummy celebrity named Nesperennub is now in Singapore's Marina Bay Sands ArtScience Museum for display until November 4, together with 100 artifacts and other five mummies from the ancient Egyptian collection of the British Museum.

The mummy of the priest Nesperennub, lived 3,000 years ago and discovered at Luxor in the 1890s, has not been unwrapped until nowadays because experts said it is a "destructive, irreversible process" for such precious bodies.

Instead, the British Museum utilized cutting-edge CT scanning technology and computer visualization techniques to perform a " virtual unwrapping" of Nesperennub without disturbing the cartonnage or any of the delicate material surrounding the mummy.

During the preview tour for the media on Thursday, a 3-D film narrated by famous British actor Patrick Stewart firstly told the story of Nesperennub, who was then a priest and died aged approximately 40.

The 3-D images show that he may suffered toothache as there is a substantial cavity at the roof of the first molar in the lower jaw, probably as a result of an abscess. There is also a cavity in the bone above his left eye, which is still an unsolved mystery how it appeared.

An interesting mistake made by the ancient embalmers for Nesperennub was also discovered by the 3-D images. Nesperennub was found to be mummified with a shallow, irregular-shaped bowl on his head, which was thought to be a placenta before the CT scanning technology is used. However, it is now proved to be part of the embalmers' working equipment, a clay bowl.

John Taylor, assistant keeper of the British Museum's department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan and curator of this exhibition, said they do not want to unwrap these fragile bodies, adding that they have "more and more come to rely on non-invasive imagery, CT scanning especially, to go beneath the wrappings and recover very large quantities of data."

"As you have seen in the film, we can now begin to understand something on the life experience, perhaps the causes of death, how the bodies of the dead were preserved. We can do all this, leaving the mummies completely untouched, respecting the dead whose bodies we are looking at, and also leaving for future generations of researchers what is in effect an untouched archaeological site in miniature," he said.

Visitors can also learn how ancient Egyptians preserved the departed in preparation for their journey into the afterlife in a special area named "Embalmer's Workshop", where hands-on demonstration will be conducted by the staff there.

"Having visited the United States, Europe, Japan, India and Australia, Nesperennub is now the most widely-travelled ancient Egyptian in the world," Taylor joked, adding that the story of his life and death opens a window on to the ancient past, which they hope "will fascinate and inspire visitors of all ages." Endi

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