Tall Caucasian Mummies of China

In the late 1980's, perfectly preserved 3000-year-old mummies began appearing in a remote Chinese desert. They had long reddish-blond hair, European features and didn't appear to be the ancestors of modern-day Chinese people.

In a find that could turn conventional history on its head, scientists using genetic testing have discovered that Caucasians lived in western China's Tarim Basin a thousand years before East Asians arrived.

Unearthed lying on her side as though in sleep, a single tuft of red hair falling across her head and ragged moccasins on her feet, the Beauty of Loulan is considered to be one of the best preserved mummies ever found.

Roughly 3800-years-old and discovered in the sands of Xinjiang province in western China, her emaciated features betray a facial bone structure that is surprisingly similar to Caucasian looking women.

A team of American and Chinese researchers working in a laboratory in Sweden used DNA samples to date and profile her mummy, confirming she and other mummies are of Indo-European descent.