Mexico: Las Momias de Guanajuato

The mummies of Guanajuato were discovered in a cemetery in Guanajuato, Mexico. Local law required relatives of the deceased to pay a grave tax. If the family was unable to pay the tax the bodies were exhumed, leading to the discovery that environmental conditions naturally mummified the bodies. Between the years 1865 and 1958 hundreds of bodies were exhumed from their graves due to non-payment of the tax. The mummified bodies were stored in a nearby building, and in the 1900s began attracting tourists. Cemetery workers began to charge a small fee for admission and eventually the building was turned into a museum, El Museo De Las Momias. In 1958 a law was passed prohibiting bodies from being exhumed. Today over a hundred mummies are on display at the museum. Many of the mummies were interred during a cholera outbreak in 1933. Due to the extreme nature of the epidemic bodies were often interred immediately to help prevent spreading the disease. As a result many of the bodies were accidentally buried alive, as evidenced by the expressions and scratches on the faces of many mummies