Shannyn Sossamon
Victoria
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4 reasons to visit Catacombs. Twenty meters underground in a maze of galleries, visitors will discover an ossuary containing the remains of several million Parisians. This unique site recalls the history of these Parisians and invites visitors to take a timeless journey.
Catacombs are human-made underground passages primarily used for religious purposes, particularly for burial. Any chamber used as a burial place is considered a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman Empire .
The Catacombs of Paris (French: Catacombes de Paris, pronunciation ⓘ) are underground ossuaries in Paris, France, which hold the remains of more than six million people. [2] Built to consolidate Paris's ancient stone quarries, they extend south from the Barrière d'Enfer ("Gate of Hell") former city gate; the ossuary was created as part of ...
Catacomb, subterranean cemetery composed of galleries or passages with side recesses for tombs. The term, of unknown origin, seems to have been applied first to the subterranean cemetery under the Basilica of San Sebastiano (located on the Appian Way near Rome), which was reputed to have been the.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Nov 27, 2023 · Since 1955, it has been illegal to enter the Catacombs without permission, though explorers known as “cataphiles” descend into the darkness to explore the hidden world beneath Paris.
- Jessica Pearce Rotondi
- 4 min
Aug 15, 2024 · An anonymous memorial to millions of unnamed, deceased residents of ages past, the Paris catacombs are filled with human femurs, skulls, and other bones– piled in oddly ornate, neat displays, and narrated by poems and quotes about death.
The catacombs are subterranean passageways that were used as place of burial for a number of centuries. The burials of Jewish, pagan and early Christian Roman citizens in the catacombs began in the second century and ended in the fifth century.
