CatacombsofParis

The Catacombs are constructed in the remaining caverns and tunnels of Paris's stone mines of bones from graves that date to the 4th and 5th centuries. By 1200, Paris's cemeteries were overwhelmed, and the long dead were exhumed and used to build walls around above-ground cemeteries. The conditions of these walls deteriorated, and in the late 1700s (1780s), the remains were dumped underground into the existing caverns and tunnels. In 1810, renovations were undertaken to make the mass site of skeletons into a mausoleum -- and ossuary. The renovated catacombs with walls of bones were open to the public in the late 1800s (1870s). Estimates put the number of bodies in the catacombs at around //six million//. // Arrête! C'est ici l'empire de la Mort // ("Stop! Here lies the Empire of Death!")