The Paris Catacombs is widely known as the "World's Largest Grave" located in Paris, France. The underground ossuaries hold the remains of about six million people. Since Jan. 1, 2013 the Paris Catacombs has been considered as one of the 14 City of Paris Museums that have been incorporated.
Beneath the busy streets of the City of Lights lies a dark and creepy yet fascinating historical wonder where an "Empire of Death" awaits every tourist visiting the French city. In a March 2014 Smithsonian.com article, it was reported that it took the city 12 years to move all the bones into the Paris Catacombs. As reported, some of the oldest bones date back in Merovingian Era, which was over 1,200 years ago.
The Paris Catacombs is a dark and creepy world shrouded in silence and draped in fascinating historical mystery known as France's Empire of the Dead. In a 2012 CNN documentary, the Catacombs of a 200-mile network of old caves, tunnels and quarries that are filled with skulls and bones of the dead, was brought to life.
Though the catacombs are open for tours and visitors, much of them are out of bounds to the public thus making it illegal to be explored unsupervised, The Daily Mail reported. Nevertheless, it still has a powerful effect that lured several hardcore explorers (cataphiles) to quench their thirst for a spooky adventure.
In spite of being a place of fear with ghostly legends, the Paris Catacombs still draw thousands of visitors, who wanted to explore the tunnel, each year. Agence France-Presse reported that the Catacombs still exert a strong influence on popular culture and have given rise to many urban legends including tales of Masonic meetings, black masses, Nazi gatherings, gang fights and serial killers.
Aside from being a dark historical ground, the Paris Catacombs is also known for some of its creepy mysteries. But it does not stop people's exploration of the caverns. Sometimes, some never find their way out. Meanwhile, Movie Pilot reported filmamaker Francis Freedland found an abandoned video-camera in the Catacombs.
Freedland launched an investigation to find out what happened to the lost explorer. In the video, a man walks though the Paris Catacombs, following arrows made of human bones.
"The person begins to walk faster and faster," Freedland was quoted by Movie Pilot. "Then he begins to run. He's frightened. He's running faster and faster, deeper and deeper into the Catacombs. Then all of a sudden, he drops the camera. The camera keeps rolling until it runs out of tape."
Freedland and his crew then explored deep into the Catacombs searching the missing man. And they found out a creepy wall painting that allegedly marked as the "Gates of Hell."
"This is far too deep for an amateur to be messing around - he must have lost his way and died," Freedland added. "If you go down deep enough, you can find the gates of hell. Perhaps this person found it."
Twelve hours later, the shaken film crew emerged but they never found the missing man.
"He could still be down there. Maybe he found a way out," Freedland stated. "Nobody knows. We didn't solve the mystery. I don't think anybody ever will."
But are the Paris Catacombs mysteries real or just a work of fiction?
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