Continuity mistake: When Rachel Weisz gets the chains cut that are holding her down, just the chains are cut but soon afterward the restraint part that goes around the wrist is gone also.
Continuity mistake: When the mummy is initiating his new slave, he offers him jewelry and shows him a sacred jar. Where did these come from? He wasn't holding them before in that same scene. (01:07:45)
Factual error: The map that Jonathan and Evie found in the puzzle box, made out of papyrus, would be so brittle after 3200 years that handling it would cause it to fall apart. Lighting it on fire and beating it on a carpet would leave nothing but dust.
Revealing mistake: At the very start, as Anck Su Namun walks towards the camera, you can see two circular plasters underneath her body paint, preventing her from becoming too exposed. (00:01:20)
Continuity mistake: When Imhotep and his zombies are going after the group in the building where Evie reads to locate the other book, watch the mummy's CG mouth when he is walking in the zombie crowd, raises both hands and shouts something. You can see in that scene the CG decay shift on his face a bit.
Other mistake: Despite nearly being hanged to death, Rick shows no sign of rope burns or bruising on his neck afterwards.
Audio problem: When Ardeth and his men attack Rick and the others during the nighttime raid, and Rick lights a stick of dynamite, Ardeth says "Enough.", but his mouth does not move.
Continuity mistake: When Rick catches Beni coming out of Burns' room in Egypt, when the meteors start raining down on the city, he roughly pushes Beni against a wall. In the next shot, Rick's hand inexplicably disappears from Beni's chest. (01:12:55)
Visible crew/equipment: In the opening action scene, when the raiders start firing their guns towards the French Foreign Legion, there's a wide-shot of several French troops being killed, and a few of them fall over a balcony to their death. As some of the soldiers on the left side of screen fall of screen and land behind some piles of sand, you can briefly see the edge of an air bag (or some other form of padding) pop up a few times with each one. (00:09:06)
Continuity mistake: This is in the beginning as Rick and his men are crouched behind a wall, facing an on-coming army. The soldier to Rick's left is positioned approximately half a head higher than Rick. In a subsequent shot, their heads are now on the same level. (00:08:15)
Continuity mistake: When the blonde bad guy is walking towards the open window with his gun, the plants near the window, and even the ones against the back wall, are blowing in the wind, but the plants and trees outside are perfectly still.
Factual error: When the boat is burning Rick tosses his bag of weapons over the side and it floats. This despite the fact that the obviously heavy bag bangs down onto the table in front of Evie when the two characters talk shortly before the fire - it is full of heavy guns and ammunition and the thin, porous canvas cover forms a roll around the heavy contents. There is absolutely no way it would trap enough air to balance the many kilograms of metal. The bag would sink like a stone when it hits the surface of the water.
Continuity mistake: Just out of curiosity, where did the bandage come from on Fraser's hand at the end of the movie? [He got burned by the salt acid in the deleted scene. An explanation, but given the editing, still a valid mistake.] (01:55:25)
Factual error: When Evelyn fights Anck-su-namun, Jonathan is struggling to read some hieroglyphics from the Book of Amun-Ra. Evelyn tells him that the word he can't remember is "Amenophis." However, "Amenophis" is not Egyptian: it is the Greek equivalent of the Egyptian name "Amenhotep" - "Amun is satisfied." In short, the name "Amenophis" could not have been written in the Book of Amun-Ra (let alone have any magical power over the undead priests) simply because it's not Egyptian.
Audio problem: At the end when Rick is battling with Imhotep and Evie is reading the inscription to take away the Priests immortality, Imhotep lobs Rick over the sacrificial alter when Evie says 'Keep him busy.' and Rick replies 'No problem' but his lips don't move.
Continuity mistake: When the Medjai watch Rick run out of the city of the dead into the open desert after the opening title, none of the bodies of the men on horseback are seen on the ground even after many of them were shot minutes before.
Continuity mistake: When they show Anck Su Namun committing suicide at the beginning, when the Pharaoh's guards show up she whips around to face them and all of her hair goes over her left shoulder. None is left on her right shoulder. However, in the shot from the front, she has half of her hair over each shoulder. (00:03:20)
Continuity mistake: When the party of Rick, Evy, Johnathan and the Warden go down into the burial chamber for the first time, the warden bends down to grab his stuff. Then it zooms in on the other three, but you see in the background the warden once again bending down. (00:42:15)
Visible crew/equipment: When O Connell is talking about not getting mummified, Imhotep's sarcophagus comes crashing through the ceiling. On a close up shot immediatly following you can see a red wire wrapped around the box and leading up into the air which means the box was guided down so it would fall straight and flat.
Continuity mistake: When O'Connell and Evie burst in on the mummy after it has killed Burns, O'Connell aims at it with one revolver in his right hand. As the mummy advances, he suddenly has two revolvers in both hands, and before that, he has made no move to his second gun.
Chosen answer: The tattoos on his forehead are the Egyptian Hieroglyphs that spell "Underworld", and the ones on his cheeks are the Egyptian Hieroglyphs for the word "truth." All Medjai males get these tattoos as part of the coming-of-age rite, when they turn sixteen, of which the most important is the tattoo on their right wrist (which Rick O'Connell also has) that marks them as "warriors for God." Other tattoos specific to Medjai males are on their arms, forearms, hands, pectorals, shoulder blades and beneath the navel - the tattoos on the nose and chin are no longer used, since the time of Seti I. Medjai females only get the wrist tattoo when they come of age, but are not marked with any of the other symbols that are particular to men. Fun fact: If the Medjai - male and female alike - shows any sign of pain or cries during the tattooing process, it is considered that they have brought shame to their family.