Have you heard of the Guanajuato Mummies? They consist of a collection of human corpses that were discovered naturally mummified during exhumations that took place in Guanajuato, Mexico. These people died during a devastating cholera epidemic that struck the region in the first half of the 19th century, but as local cemeteries began to run out of space for all victims, the bodies began to be buried in crypts - no longer in graves. in the ground.

(George Pickow / Three Lions / Getty Images)

However, according to Gabe Paoletti of All That Is Interesting, due to local weather conditions - which are hot and very arid - instead of the bodies decaying, they eventually mummified. The bodies began to be discovered in this state in 1865, after the local government began collecting taxes from the families of the buried and forcing those who could not afford to exhume their loved ones. Yes, dear reader, a horror!

Morbid curiosity

But horror itself must be what family members felt when they saw that bodies not only remained preserved, but in many cases the faces of the dead seemed to show expressions of terror. Of course, there is nothing supernatural about the victims buried during the cholera outbreak - it is just a macabre coincidence that so many of them were discovered with "terrified" faces.

(Earl Leaf / Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images)

According to Gabe, it was not long before ominous rumors involving the mummies began to circulate around Guanajuato, arousing the morbid curiosity of the people. And soon those who had a more funereal vein began to pay the cemetery gravediggers to show off the poor corpses.

(Tomascastelazo / Wikimedia Commons)

Dreadful stories also surfaced about some of the mummies, such as that of a woman named Ignacia Aguilar - who, when she was exhumed, would have been found biting her arm, thus arousing the suspicion that she was still alive when she was buried.

(César Landeros Soriano / Wikimedia Commons)

Another famous mummy was that of a young woman who died during childbirth and was buried with her 24-week-old premature baby. According to Gabe, this fetus is possibly one of the "youngest" mummified bodies ever known.

(Asenetp / Wikimedia Commons)

In the end, a total of 111 corpses - men, women and children - were exhumed in Guanajuato between 1865 and 1989 and, as the macabre interest in those frozen dead in time never “died, ” the cemetery turned into a popular tourist attraction and Today it houses a museum that has 59 mummies on display.