The Guanajuato Mummies · Bodies Dug Out of the Ground

In the late nineteenth century Guanajuato’s cemetery began charging a burial fee, and families who could not pay had to dig up their dead. The dry soil and climate meant the bodies did not decay; they became mummies instead.

A number of them were later put in display cases and became a museum. Among the exhibits are a pregnant woman, a miner buried alive — his posture is one of struggle — and a body said to have turned itself over at its own funeral.

Inside, touching and photography are not allowed. At the exit a sign reads: these are other people’s families.

Occult Chronicles / Guanajuato · Mexico / 1865