After 3,000 Years, on Way to L.A.

CAIRO — Lady X, the 3,000-year-old mummy of a commoner, left Sunday for the United States and a six-month round of tests that may help save 27 mummies of ancient Egyptian royalty.

Escorted by Kamal Barakat, director general of the Egyptian Antiquities Organization’s conservation center, the mummy was flown to Paris en route to Los Angeles aboard a Trans World Airlines Boeing 747.

It was the first time Egyptian authorities have allowed a mummy to be sent out of the country for any reason since the remains of Pharaoh Ramses II were taken to Paris in 1976 for restoration work.

Lady X, with no clues to her identity, is destined for the laboratories of the Getty Conservation Institute at Marina del Rey. Experts there will try to determine how best to preserve mummies, particularly those on public view.

According to Cairo experts, Lady X was 35 to 40 years old when she died and is 4 feet, 10 inches tall. Her wavy, yellowish hair, face and eyes are well preserved.

She dates from the New Kingdom, 1550-1070 BC, the era that was the height of mummification, when even the poor could afford some degree of preservation.