Located in the heart of Mexico, the Mummy Museum of Guanajuato owes its existence to a bizarre 1865 law. The local government imposed a burial tax on families, and if the fee was not paid for three consecutive years, the bodies were promptly disinterred to make room for paying customers. When workers began digging up the graves, they were horrified to find that the soil composition and dry climate had naturally mummified the corpses rather than allowing them to decay. The first mummy discovered was Remigio Leroy, a French doctor who died in 1865. Instead of reburying these remains, the cemetery began storing them in a building, eventually charging people a fee to view the macabre collection. The mummies are famous for their distorted facial expressions, often appearing as if they died in mid scream, though this is a natural result of the tongue and jaw muscles drying out. The collection includes the world's smallest mummy, a fetus found with its mother. This site highlights a strange intersection of fiscal policy, biology, and the Victorian fascination with death, turning a municipal dispute into a permanent gallery of the deceased.