Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Scariest Places in the World: Catacombs, France



From Wikipedia: The ossuary holds the remains of about 6 million people[1] and fills a renovated section of caverns and tunnels that are the remains of Paris' stone mines. Opened in the late 18th century, the underground cemetery became a tourist attraction on a small scale from the early 19th century, and has been open to the public on a regular basis from 1867. Following an incident of vandalism, they were closed to the public in September 2009 and reopened 19 December of the same year. The official name for the catacombs is l'Ossuaire Municipal. Although this cemetery covers only a small section of underground tunnels comprising "les carrières de Paris" ("the quarries of Paris"), Parisians today often refer to the entire tunnel network as "the catacombs.

The bigger question for many of us who find the storage of 6,000,000 people's bones as macabre, is could it be haunted? In general, I tend to believe that the only time that graveyards are haunted are when families come to grieve and call upon the dead, but an underground location filled with bones could very well have the right "alchemy" to create some very strange phenomena.

I really enjoyed this movie with a catacomb theme--

5 comments:

  1. 1) If we lived close... I think we'd get into WAY too much michief together... But, it would be a blast.

    2) Catacombs are creepy. Even I would crave a huge FLOOD FLASHLIGHT... HUGE!

    3) 19 days until halloween!

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  2. I can only imagine getting lost in those... O.o

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  3. It must be a word-association with me because I always expect to see cats in catacombs.

    (At least I don't expect to see cats with combs!)

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  4. Feeling a bit claustrophobic! That is a very creepy place. I would hate to get lost down there.... alone!

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  5. I have to admit, the psychometrist in me really wants to go down there and feel the place and see if it has the right ingredients to be haunted. I suspect it's missing an important element--humans who come down to grieve and visit the dead that they knew and I believe that's the only reason you find cemeteries haunted.

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