Street vendor sells mummies in the late 1900s

Egyptian street vendors have been catering to the whims of tourists since forever, apparently: Selling ancient mummies to wealthy European and American tourists as “tourist souvenirs” was apparently commonplace in Egypt around the nineteenth century, according to Rare Historical Photos. Mummies were readily available from street vendors — such as the one pictured above from 1865 — for tourists to bring back home. “So brisk was the trade in mummies to Europe that even after ransacking tombs and catacombs there just were not enough ancient Egyptian bodies to meet the demand. And so fake mummies were fabricated.” There is obviously no way to verify the picture above, but Egypt has a long history of its wealth and artefacts being purchased under questionable circumstances.