In the Catacombs

The catacombs of Paris are totally trippy. after paying the entry fee, I was expecting maybe a lenghty presentation followed by a viewing of a wall covered in skulls, or just a long tunnel with some random bones here and there.

What was really in the tunnels was just plain weird. First, you head straight down a carved stone spiral staircase that's so narrow I started getting dizzy halfway down. I almost fell on top of Palina and Gina (maybe that's how they add extra bones- the dead people who land at the the bottom of the stairs). Then, you walk what seems like half-a-mile through a series of moist tunnels that are surprisingly cool thanks to a carved-in air system. Afterwards, you reach the strangely-boring-for-being-underground "educational" area with the posters and maps and all.

But then you turn a corner and...ta-daa...bones! bones! bones!

Bones everywhere. In all sorts of formations. I though they had just dumped the bones from various cemetaries in the catacombs, but the workers must have gotten bored at some point and started exploring their creativity.

The bones are stacked in various patterns: rows and rows of what seemed like femurs followed by a row of skulls staring out into the dark, or skulls placed around the wall of bones to form crosses or arrows. There are hallways and chambers filled to the top with walls of bones, and even an altar from when they used to hold mass for the workers. Every chamber also has a plaque noting what cemetary the bones came from.

Entrance to one of the chambers: "Stop, here is the empire of death". Fun!

Gina and Palina going down to the catacombs, oblivious that I almost fell on them.

A column made of, surprise, skulls and other sundry bones.

Random collection of bones. The strange thing is that we didn't see any hand bones or vertebrae. Maybe they keep them in special rooms.

Another lovely bone arrangement.

Some additional things of note: 1) The part that the public sees is only a fraction of the actual catacombs 2) Like mentioned in the pic, who knows where the rest of the bones went to or why they separated them, but there were no feet, hands, pelvises, etc. and 3) There was some white-ish water dripping from the ceiling, which grossed us out and was referred from then on as "skull water".