PARIS CATACOMBS

About three centuries ago, a major problem arose in Paris. The decomposing bodies in the graveyards of the churches were poisoning the Paris water table. So city officials and the clergy quietly agreed to move the remains of seven million people into the underground tunnels originally built by the Romans. There are miles of these tunnels stacked floor to ceiling with skulls and femur bones.

Aside from plaques which give the internment date for each section, the dead are not identified in any way. Friends and lovers, royalty and pesants could all be stacked all together. We will never know.

It's an eerie thought to realize that every day, the people above are literally walking over the graves of the those who built the city.