Are you visiting Mexico City and want to do different and original tours? With this guide you will be able to make an excursion full of mysteries.

The museum of El Carmen

It is located in San Angel and is one of the 80 monuments that, thanks to its architecture and history, have earned the neighborhood the status of National Zone of Historic Monuments of Mexico since 1984. In it you can observe pieces of New Spanish sacred art and visit its different spaces: the cloister, the toilets, the sacristy, the chapel, among others.

It was formerly the Colegio de San Angelo, built in 1615 by the Discalced Carmelite friars in order to prepare more priests.

Do you know the mummies of San Angel?

We propose you to visit the resting place of Captain Juan Ortega and his family, a military man who was able to obtain the privilege of a crypt in this monastery, whose decorative and architectural elements will please you.

It was very common for the wealthy families of the time to acquire houses in the surrounding areas to spend retirement or vacation time, so it was also common for them to acquire crypts near them, which are located under the church, with delicate details in their decoration.

You will also be able to enter one of the most emblematic buildings of the city, known as one of the most important and original architecturally speaking.

In addition, you will see the mummified bodies of 12 people whose identity is still unknown to this day, still wearing period clothing and with somewhat creepy expressions. These mummies were discovered during the Mexican Revolution between 1917 and 1918 and are currently exhibited in the burial crypt of the former Colegio de San Angelo.

The unknowns surrounding the mummies of El Carmen

Currently for the museum, the mummies are the biggest tourist attraction, which despite being somewhat grotesque, have managed to be most appealing. There are other well-known museums in Mexico that attract tourists from all over the world, such as the Frida Kahlo Museum.

In the museum of El Carmen many legends and myths circulate about the mummies of San Angel, among them are those told by the cleaning staff, who swear that after cleaning the place, they find hairs of the mummies because ”they have gone out to comb their hair”. Another of the stories that circulate is that the revolutionaries of that time were the ones who brought the mummies to this place considered by them as sacred.

An attempt has also been made to develop a project to find out the true identity of the mummified bodies, since the coffins in which they may have originally been, must have been looted or stolen, so there are no traces left to investigate.

Visit the museum of the mummies of San Antonio Alanzas

Another museum where you can see mummies is the San Antonio Alanzas Museum, which is divided into four rooms equipped with interactive screens where you can see information. In addition to these, there are also display cases with mummified bodies dating from the 19th century.