The “Screaming” Mummies Of Guanajuato: The Horrifying Remains Of Cholera Victims In Mexico
George Pickow/Three Lions/Getty ImagesMummies on display in the Panteon cemetery vault in Guanajuato, Mexico.
In the Mexican town of Guanajuato, the 1850s cholera epidemic wreaked havoc on those who lived there. So many people died that the bodies had begun to quite literally pile up, forcing townsfolk to forego burying their dead and instead place them in above-ground crypts — but the warm, arid environment caused the partially-embalmed corpses to start mummifying.
And in 1865, local authorities instituted a “burial tax” that forced families to make continual payments in order to keep their relatives underground. Those who couldn’t afford the tax had to stand by and watch as their loved ones were pulled out of the ground and moved into the crypts.
It was then that the crypt owners found the mummified bodies in the crypts, their faces forever frozen in expressions that look like screams.
And as the crypt owners took a closer look at the “Guanajuato Mummies,” they soon made several more horrifying discoveries.
One body, that of Ignacia Aguilar, had been found biting into her own arm. Many believe she had accidentally been buried alive after her cholera symptoms and other health conditions made her appear dead.
Three Lions/Getty ImagesMummified infants in Guanajuato, Mexico.
Another belonged to a woman who died in childbirth. Her 24-week-old fetus had also been mummified — one of the youngest mummies in existence.
The mummies became so well known that 111 were put on display by the early 1900s. And 59 are still on display today at El Museo de las Momias.
But despite the years passing, the horror of the mummies’ faces hasn’t faded. In 1947, nearly a century after the cholera epidemic, author Ray Bradbury visited a crypt in Guanajuato and could barely stomach the sight.
“The experience so wounded and terrified me, I could hardly wait to flee Mexico,” he said. “I had nightmares about dying and having to remain in the halls of the dead with those propped and wired bodies.”