Les Catacombes, Paris

I've been reading Jeff Lindsay's Dexter books the last few weeks so Les Catacombes seemed like an appropriate place to post.

You have been warned!

There is still time to hit the back button. We're heading to a very dark place.

At the end of the Eighteenth Century, quarry tunnels beneath Paris were used to finally dispose of bodies exhumed from Paris cemeteries. The city had decided to quit burying the dead within city limits due to mass overcrowding of cemeteries and the terrible state of sanitation in the city.

The official name for the catacombs is l'Ossuaire Municipal.

These bones were transferred to these quarry tunnels between 1786 and 1789.
The catacombs contain the remains of about six million Parisians.

Wall of the Crypt of the Sepulchral Lamp -

The length of the walking tour is about 2 kilometers.

It takes about 45 minutes to get through the tunnels.

The bones are very neatly stacked/organized in some places -

The well at the end of the tunnel.

Back when the city was overcrowding with dead bodies covered with lime in mass graves, its primary source of water was from nearby wells. Eeew.