Catacombs of Paris

Author: Kenneth Brown

“Into the 19th century those caverns and tunnels were mined for building stone. After that farmers raised mushrooms in them, at one point producing hundreds of tons a year. During World War II, French Resistance fighters—the underground—hid in some quarries; the Germans built bunkers in others. Today the tunnels are roamed by a different clandestine group, a loose and leaderless community whose members sometimes spend days and nights below the city. They're called cataphiles, people who love the Paris underground.”

Small portions of The Paris Catacombs have been open and used to and by tourists ever since the early nineteenth century because of the danger and risk of The Paris Catacombs. Lots of people have gotten mislead in the passages and died in the Underground tunnels. It has gotten so bad that now the Paris police department was created to patrol them, to make sure that people don’t go in the unwanted areas of the cave. To this day many crazy wanderers sneak down into the unmapped and unknown sections of The Catacombs of Paris to see what they can find. 

If you look carefully in some of the areas the bones are laid in different patterns. The Leg bones are stacked high in rows covered beneath the skulls. In the other chambers pieces of legs, arms, ribs, and heads are scattered all over the floor. The Catacombs Paris consists of rooms where you must walk across a sea of skeletons in order to pass through. These piles are really deep. You cannot tell how deep these piles go or how many layers of bones lie beneath your feet.

My opinion personally I would not explore the caves because it is not safe. If you think about it you could say it’s a gamble or a risk. It is also a win lose situation. People think that it’s great to explore forbidden areas but just because something looks good doesn't mean the outcome will be great itself.  In the article it says people have gotten lost from getting off the main tour route.  It really does seem interesting though.

Work Cited Page

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=catacombs+of+paris&oq=catacombs+&gs_l=youtube.1.0.0l10.1196.3784.0.5713.10.8.0.2.2.0.191.809.3j5.8.0...0.0...1ac.1.11.youtube.YocyXtLK2YM            This site helped gives me video and media information about how the catacombs look like inside.

http://the39clues.scholastic.com/cahillweb/article/i-like-useless-facts-paris-catacombs

This Site gave me an insight of how the Catacombs of Paris were put to use.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/02/paris-underground/shea-text