With a cultural calendar featuring such macabre festivals like the Day of the Dead, it pretty much goes without saying that Mexican culture has a certain fascination with death. Guanajuato's fascinating and overwhelmingly popular Mummy Museum, which has over 100 mummies on display, fits right in!

In the late 19th century, city officials decided that some of the bodies - namely those whose families were unable to pay the burial tax fee - needed to be removed from the "Panteón", Guanajuato's overcrowded public cemetery. You can imagine their surprise upon finding that many of the remains being removed weren't just dusty skeletons but rather pristinely mummified bodies complete with clothing, skin, hair and even facial expressions. Some of these mummies, due to their facial expressions, are even thought to have been buried alive due to the panicked rush to bury bodies as quickly as possible during a ferocious cholera epidemic that had swept the city in the first half of the century.

Subsequent investigations into the discovery led to the conclusion that the combination of the city's air and weather leads to a natural mummification processIt turns out that the combination of area's dry atmosphere and the mineral content of the soil preserves and naturally mummifies bodies- a process which only takes 5 or 6 years.

This popular and undeniably peculiar museum is a must-see for any visitor in Guanajuato. Luckily, Guanajuato is a city completely navigable by foot and, with the central location of our school and accommodation, is extremely easy to get to!

Learn more about our school location: Guanajuato School Facilities