Journey into the catacombs of Paris

• Travel in the catacombs of Paris

A little trip to the catacombs of Paris. 25 meters under the ground, 2500 m skulls and bones of 6 million people. Terrible spectacle, but very interesting.

You should have patience. Even on a rainy autumn here are eager to get hundreds of tourists every day. Be ready an hour 2-2, 5 stand in line.

Metro station Denfert Rocherout, almost opposite the exit.

For our purposes we are exactly 130 steps along a very narrow spiral staircase. Steps are sometimes wet and slippery.

Next, we are waiting for a couple of rooms with signs, descriptions and diagrams exclusively in French. We run past them and that's it. It begins. 2, 5 kilometers horror.

An eerie series of long, wet, dark and gloomy corridor leads to the heart of the Paris catacombs. 25 meters under the ground. Below all communications and metro.

In the 11-13-s century French stone was needed. His production was carried out in the underground quarries in the country. But the miner burrows and got to the city. There were cases of entire buildings collapse under the ground.

In the course of the development of new mines and stroke was found a large amount of fossil rarities.

This is it. I warn you, then we will dive into the "Kingdom of Death": will be a lot of pictures of bones, skulls and just creepy things.

Before going to bed do not look

In the Middle Ages a cemetery were located next to the church. That is right in the center of the city. But after a while the place was not enough. And then there's the plague ...

In Paris, the cemetery of the Innocents were buried parishioners from 19 churches and 50,000 victims of the bubonic plague, thousands of victims of St. Bartholomew and hundreds of unidentified bodies.

All the cemetery of the Innocents in the center of Paris was buried about 2 million people. In one grave could be the remains of 1500 people. The depth of the burial of up to 10 m.

In 1780, the wall separating the cemetery of the Innocents from the houses on the next street, collapsed. Cellars of nearby houses were filled with the remains of the dead and lots of dirt and filth.

In 1785, the State Council decided to postpone the Innocents cemetery in the former quarry Issoire Tomb, outside the city limits.

There was disinfected and bones stacked neatly. All this is not without Christian symbols and phrases about the terrible inevitability of decay and death.