Based on ancient artifacts taking place of what today’s photographs do for imagery, scientist Sally Ann Ashton has created a 3D image of what they believe the real Cleopatra looked like – and she looks NOTHING like the character played by Elizabeth Taylor.

[from Daily Mail]

After over a year of research, scientists have determined that Cleopatra may have been of mixed heritage. According to Ashton, while her background was indeed European, as records indicate, her family resided in Egypt about 300 years before Cleopatra was even born, leading them to believe some race mixing was involved by the time the queen came around.

While many fiction portrayals, including Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, described Cleopatra as a lithe, fair beauty, many documents actually imply that she was “short and frumpy with bad teeth.” Ouch!