The Catacombs

About 200 years ago, Paris had a problem. The population was getting large, so land was in great demand. However, Paris was such an old city that a large portion of this land was taken up my cemetaries. The solution was this: dig up all the old cemetaries, use an old abandoned mine, stack the bones nicely down there, and free up some land. The result is the Catacombs, over a mile of bones stacked about 7 feet high and 6 feet deep, what I can only guess is hundreds of thousands of bodies.

The journey begins at a small non-descript door. You go inside, get a ticket, and head down a long long long flight of stairs into the earth. Once you're down there, the Catacombs don't start right away. You have an old abandoned quarry to go through first. This is a rather long walk just in and of itself, but it definitely sets the mood for what's to come. The path is creepy and poorly lit. About half way through, the ceiling starts to trip, so you get this constant tap tap tap on your head and shoulders. And then out of nowhere, you get the entrance.

Stop! Here is the Empire of the Dead.

That's what the sign over the entrance actually says. The walls are made of skulls and femurs. They hold back the rest of the bones. Usually, there's a row of skulls along the top, then about three feet of femuers below, anoter row of skulls, and femurs down to the ground, but in certain areas, they use the bones to make huge ornate designs. There are crosses, and churches, and other things made from skulls and femurs. But the most amazing thing is how long this goes on. You feel like you must be at the end, you turn a corner, and there you face a thousand more skulls. It's incredible.

The thing that got my heart going the most wasn't the skulls, it was the group in front of me. The girl said to her mother, "can you imagine if the power went out down here?" The light was dim enough, but if the power actually went out, you'd be forced to feel your way out. That's a prospect I could have done without.

R