Paris Catacombs: An Underground Labyrinth of the Bones of Those That Died In Paris and Were Relocated In the Eighteenth Century

The catacombs of Paris are a really interesting place to visit, providing an experience unlike anything most people have had unless they have wandered the tombs of Egypt.

The catacombs are located in the Montparnasse arrondissement of Paris, and the entrance is near a statue of a lion, which adds to the atmosphere of the fact that you are about to enter an underground catacomb.

Once you have your ticket, there is a set of winding stairs next to a sign warning people with heart conditions that the sight may not be the best for them, obviously intended to make visitors not feel freaked out, which then instructs you to follow the staircase down into the underground, a staircase that seems like it will never end.

When you get to the bottom, it doesn't seem that strange, as it is better lit than you might expect with the normal informational signs of the wall. After reading them, you continue and that's when it starts to get a bit different.

The path directs visitors to follow through underground corridors that barely lit, and if you aren't wearing flat shoes, good luck to you.

When you emerge, there are rooms that resemble a basement where someone has stacked things everywhere, just leaving a path for people to get through the room by following the winding open area. The strange part is that the "stacked things" in this case are bones.

There are piles of skulls, tibias, femurs, humerus, vertebrae, radius' and ulnas, as well as any other type of bone you can name. They are stacked very neatly and purposefully, and when you read the signs nearby, you find that they are the remains of people that were buried in the cemetery Les Innocents, which has since been built over, which is what required the relocation of the remains which were moved between 1786 and 1788.

As you follow through room after room of these stacks of bones, you also pass a small room that looks like sandcastle that is backlit and very interesting. As you walk through the corridors, you can also see the original street signs, allowing you to see where you are underground on a map.

You can also read the original plaques that went in Les Innocents with phrases in French and Latin. The most amazing part is the sheer number of people that are there. When you look at the massive number of bones, and think about how many bones go with one body, it is just amazing.