The Catacombs of Paris
By Savannah Cabe
The Beggining
The catacombs were origanally limestone quarries, some from the roman times. At the time, Les Halles was suffering from contaimnation of bad buriel and mass grave sites. The end result was desiese. They decided to descretley move and arrange the bones into underground passageways that would later be known as the catacombs of paris.
Here is one of the many passages in the cataombs, and in my opinion, one of the most elaborate.
Here is a tower in the catacombs, supported only by the bones you see.
This is one of the walls in the catacombs in the walls with a heart incorporated in the design.
Catacombs Today
Today, a walk through the catacombs will make your hair stand on edge.Each scull is stacked carfully, one on top of the other, labeld by the year they died. Only a small portion is open to the Paris public, the whole tunnel is over 300 kilomiters total. Supposedly the enterence to the tunnel is restricted. However, brave souls can venture into the dangerous unknown in certain places in the sewers or the subway system. Drug dealers, Addics, or people who want meeting kept have used the catacombs. Some have spent weeks underground, others have hid flasks of wine or mushroom fields in secret places.
Legally speaking, your not allowed to go into the catacombs since 1955. There is a big fine and tunnel police. They closed off the dangerous places, located mostly in the heart of the city. There is graffity in the tunnels from the law-breakers, and some people even live there. Victor Hugo used his knowledge about the tunnels in his book Les misrables. During world war 2, some Parisians used the tunnels for their own purposes. German also used the famous tunnels for a underground bunker.