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Paris Catacombs, June 1998 : When most people hear of catacombs they think of Rome, but under the city of Paris there lies millions of bones from graveyards emptied during the 1700-1800's. Paul Joseph (PJ) Smith and I went down the cramped steel circular stairwell inserted into the ground. It's about 25 meters below ground so its quite an excercise, especially coming back to the surface at the other end of the site. Welcome to the Denfert-Rochereau Ossuary-- The Empire of the Dead. All pictures by Bob Pritzl and a few by PJ.

Paris Catacombs, June 1998

When most people hear of catacombs they think of Rome, but under the city of Paris there lies millions of bones from graveyards emptied during the 1700-1800's. Paul Joseph (PJ) Smith and I went down the cramped steel circular stairwell inserted into the ground. It's about 25 meters below ground so its quite an excercise, especially coming ...

Updated: Jul 30, 2007 7:10am PST