All of these mummies were removed between 1865 and 1958, when the law required relatives to pay a tax in order to keep the bodies in the cemetery. If the relatives could not pay this tax, they would lose the right to the burial place, and the dead bodies were disinterred.Ninety percent of the bodies in the cemetery were disinterred because their relatives did not pay the tax. However, only 2% of them were naturally mummified. The mummified bodies were stored in a building and in the 1900s the mummies began attracting tourists. Cemetery workers began charging people a few pesos to enter the building where bones and mummies were stored.
This place was turned into a museum called El Museo De Las Momias, The Mummies' Museum. A law prohibiting the disinterring of more mummies was passed in 1958, but this museum still exhibits the original mummies with no talk of returning the mummies to their original graves.There are a number of strange looking bodies on display. Some are fully clothed, some partially, and others naked. The ages range from a small baby to the elderly, and a case of a woman who was buried alive.
Her hands are raised up to her face, and the forehead is badly scratched. A terrible end for any of us.
It is believed from a number of unconfirmed reports that the museum is haunted by it`s occupants, although details of these hauntings are not currently known.
Story: Chris Halton
