The Catacombs

We visited the Catacombs.

When we joined the line, someone told us that it would be a 2 hour wait. We stayed anyway.

There is a series of underground tunnels under Paris. There was good quality limestone which they used for building places like the Notre Dame.

There are inscriptions on the wall in underground walkways that give information about where we were. This one would mean that it was the 1st pillar of a series built in 1848.

They also would show the names of the roads above.

Lots of the tunnels were long and narrow.

This sculpture was made by a quarryman named Décure. He fought in the armies of Louis XV.
It is a sculpture of the fortress of Port-Mahon in Minorca.

This is the Quarryman's Footbath.
They used the water to mix cement when they worked on the Catacombs.

The largest cemetery in Paris was closed because a basement wall for a building beside the cemetery collapsed from the weight of the mass grave beside it. The cemetery was called Cimetière des Saints-Innocents in Les Halles.

Just before you reach the section with the bones there is a sign that says:
Stop! This is the emipire of death.

There are the remains of 6,000,000 people there.

Sometimes you could spot shapes.

This section has bones from Cimetière des Innocents from 1786.

This sign reminds us to live each day like it's our last.

They had altars in the Catacombs.

Sometimes they arranged the bones in columns.

I wasn't scared down in the Catacombs.
My parents and I did a lot of research together before we went in.
It's like no place we have ever been and I'm glad I went.