Revealing the True Death Toll of the Plague

Historians just proved the impossible death tolls from the Black Death in the Middle East

were actually real. For years, scholars thought the body counts in Cairo were exaggerated

because they were astronomically high. But they were missing a huge piece of the puzzle.

When the plague hit in 1348, terrified villagers didn't stay home. They flooded into

the city hoping for doctors or miracles. Researchers cracked this by comparing inheritance records,

which only tracked locals with money, against funeral prayer lists that counted everyone.

The massive gap revealed that tens of thousands of bodies belonged to refugees who

fled their villages only to die anonymously in the city streets.