The Catacombs of Paris is a famed burial place in Paris, France. It is a channel of subterranean tunnels and rooms located in limestone quarries. It is popularly known as “the catacombs”, but the official title is “les carrières de Paris” or “the quarries of Paris”. The quarries were converted into a mass tomb near the end of the 18th century.
Unlike the many extravagant museums, cathedrals, and tombs in Paris, the entrance to the combs is a plain black door in a small building that you can easily miss if you blinked while passing by it. But, the entrance to the catacombs is prohibited. Lurking into the catacombs has been illegal since November 2. 1955, and there is a fine of € 60 if you are caught by the catallics. Catallics are the official police who guard the catacombs. The part of the catacombs that is open to the public is only a small portion of an extensive network of underground tunnels.
Unauthorized visits to the Paris catacombs are illegal and potentially dangerous. The tunnel system is complex, and even if some streets have markers indicating the name of the street above, it is still possible for you to get lost. A good guide is essential, and even good guides still refer to a map once in a while.
In spite of that, secret entrances are scattered throughout Paris, accessed through the sewers or metro. There are certain manholes that also lead to the catacombs. Some unofficial visitors have the keys to certain official entrances. Occasionally, drug dealers, addicts, eccentrics, and people who would want to hold secret meetings or unusual parties do illegally break into the catacombs. Those who come to visit Paris catacombs are mostly urban explorers, precisely cataphiles. They would go down for a day, a night, or maybe a week to explore, hang out, take photos, paint murals, create maps, clean up rooms, dig chatiers, and enjoy.
The bones had begun accumulating in the catacombs back in 1786 when cemeteries became severely overcrowded. And there was no attempt made to identify or separate individual bodies, but each set of bones was marked to identify as to where it was came from and the date in which they were transferred.
Paris catacombs is mysterious, and in many ways downright disheartening. It is difficult to disregard the bones of millions of people piled in a way that are clearly arranged for maximum compactness, and look pretty much alike. Nobody can tell if the bones belong to an aristocrat, young or old, rich or poor. There are no intact skeletons of these human bones. At first it appeared to be walls built of small stones, where in fact orderly piles of human bones. The site must have been very depressing.
Paris may have many famous and magnificent tourist spots to explore and enjoy, but the Paris catacombs have a different effect to those who have seen the piles of human bones in the quarries. But, one thing for sure, they would appreciate their mortality.
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