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You are here: Home / Latin America / Mexico / The Mummy Museum of Mexico

The Mummy Museum of Mexico

December 9, 2018 by Jason B.

It would totally suck if cemeteries charged an annual tax to keep your body buried. I would be hesitant to pay this for a great-great relative whom I know nothing about. This is what happened in Guanajuato, Mexico. But in this town most people were to poor to pay the tax even if they wanted.
While vacationing in Guanajuato I spent an afternoon at the city's famous Museo de las Momias. It's kind of a strange place to get to, though. Since the city is built on top of tunnels you need to wind your way through them outside of the centro colonial area to a less attractive part. This is where the unemployed and underemployed gather to do nothing. Middle-aged men sit on porches and trinket vendors make no sales.

The museum at just over $4USD for a student ticket is a fair price to see the world's tiniest mummy. In the 1800's the idea was not to turn the bodies into mummies. It just happened due to a unique soil composition when they were buried. Then when people refused to pay taxes the bodies were unburied.

The museum was creepy. Much less so than the crypts I visited in Lima, Peru

. But still spooky.

According to the guide many of the mummies died rather horrificly. In fact, one of the mummies is seen covering her face because she was buried alive. I saw another mummy with a purple color to him since he had drowned. I even saw a man with a dark  pigmentation in one area from hematoma because he had been stabbed.
Via http://www.flickr.com/photos/robphoto/with/2656563368/
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Filed Under: Mexico Tagged With: Guanajuato mummy, Mummy Museum, museo de las momias

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Ovidiu Pacuraru says

    September 27, 2011 at 5:09 pm

    “It would totally suck if cemeteries charged an annual tax to keep your body buried.” – how does this work in your country? Thats default procedures foru00a0theu00a0countries I know about…

  2. Locationless Living says

    September 28, 2011 at 4:18 pm

    I had no idea Ovidiu! You learn something new everything ๐Ÿ˜‰

  3. Ovidiu Pacuraru says

    September 28, 2011 at 5:25 pm

    You’re totally right and that is the reason I asked what system you were expecting since this one is the only I knew about :-)u00a0nCall it morbid curiosity but I was honestly curios what other systems were used in other places.

  4. Locationless Living says

    September 28, 2011 at 5:32 pm

    I was trying to say I have no clue which system is used in other countries. I have to assume the one you are familiar with is the one being used. So now I learned something new ๐Ÿ™‚

  5. summer hathway says

    December 9, 2011 at 3:46 am

    ย this post so nice and interesting one to read.

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