The Mystery of the Mummies of Guanajuato… A Sad Mexican Story

From injustices, wars, UFO sightings and the reason why Chueco Gaitán separated from Los Tigres, the world is full of strange events, difficult to understand and even unfathomable, such as UFO sightings, wars and the reason why Chueco Gaitán separated from Los Tigres. The article offered describes a fact with the same characteristics. It is a strange reality that is both macabre and gloomy. This narrative begins with the discovery of mummies in the Mexican city of Guanajuato. No, they do not rise during the night to wreak havoc on the population.

Beyond the ghostly vision that these well-preserved bodies present, what is truly remarkable is the past they hide.

The mummies may be on display at the Guanajuato Mummy Museum, where they were discovered. This museum houses an extensive collection of mummies generated by natural processes. Analysis revealed that the mummies were exhumed in the 1830s, during a cholera epidemic in the region. This whole situation would not have been known if it were not for an event that occurred there…

The government imposed a charge on the cemetery space, but this action was not supported by all citizens, particularly the impoverished…

The law stipulated that the body had to be exhumed if these taxes were not paid. The unearthed bodies were handed over to the families, who determined what to do with them. Figuratively speaking, the gun was thrown at them. However, many families who were unwilling to pay the law or simply could not afford it were able to reclaim their deceased loved ones.

In total, 90 percent of the deceased were exhumed from their graves. But, to everyone’s amazement, instead of graves, as expected, they discovered something different…

Instead of tombs, they discovered extremely well-preserved mummies. The mummies were then allowed to inhabit a structure located within the cemetery until the early 20th century. Several cemetery employees recognized lucrative economic potential in these mummies, as they had become somewhat famous in the preceding years.

So they decided to charge a few pesos to anyone who wanted to see the mummies. This is how this place was transformed into the museum it is today.

But why haven’t the corpses decomposed? How did these mummies come into existence? Locals believe that people affected by cholera were once ill and that the disease preserved the remains in a peculiar way. This museum, which can still be visited, contains several rarities, including the world’s smallest mummy, which was created after a pregnant woman died of cholera…

But research has now found the real cause. The unique properties of the soil in the Guanajuato region were the main culprit. The cemetery soil had nitrate, alum and other factors that caused it to mummify the newly buried dead and preserve them.