Inside the 320 kilometer long 'Empire of Death' right under your feet | World news

In the mid-18th century, nowhere stank as much as Paris did.

Sewage was not the only reason for this. Instead, the streets of the French capital were filled to the brim with dead, rotting bodies.

So, what is the best solution? It is obvious. Piles upon piles of bodies neatly crammed into a twisting labyrinth that meanders beneath the city that became a popular tourist destination hundreds of years later.

The 'Catacombs of Paris'.

For centuries, Parisians buried their loved ones in cemeteries on the outskirts of the city, away from citizens, before cemeteries emerged in the center.

Soon, one of the most important central cemeteries in Paris, known as Cimetière des Saints-Innocents, became a six-foot-long mound of earth and broken building parts filled with corpses—literally.

At one point, part of the site gave way, sending bodies rushing into people's homes and restaurants. Definitely not what customers ordered.

Parisian officials had few options. Catholicism banned cremation and crypts were a public health nightmare, so the only place you could go in 1785 had been demolished.

An old limestone mine was converted into a charnel house called the Catacombs of Paris, in reference to the Roman underground necropolis.

Located beneath what is now the 14th arrondissement, the Catacombs are considered one of the largest tombs in the world, containing the remains of approximately 6,000,000 people stretching through 200 miles of labyrinthine tunnels.

Only a small part is open to the public, known as the Denfert-Rochereau Ossuary, which begins with a less than welcoming message above the entrance door: 'Stop! This is the realm of death.”

A corkscrew staircase brings people along about 20 meters underground in the claustrophobic corridors of the Catacombs.

Getting around the Catacombs today can be tricky as there is virtually no phone signal and it takes about an hour to walk the 1.5km circuit, according to official tour organisers.

And that even applies to 'Cataphiles' – people who regularly explore the ossuary. Visiting the prohibited areas of the graves is illegal and considered a trespass. If caught, violators face a small fine.

But some urban explorers have described slipping into the unmarked and dangerous tunnels through the manholes of Paris in the dead of night with the help of underground – or more accurately underworld – guides.

Having rules when navigating the Paris underworld is vital, said a Cataphylewith one such line, including: “If we get lost, we sit and wait (hopefully to be found) and don't try to navigate the complicated tunnels ourselves.”

But in 1793 things became a little more difficult when doorkeeper Philibert Aspairt entered the Catacombs through the cellar door of the Val-de-Grâce military hospital, for reasons that no one knows to this day.

With only one candle in his hand, Aspairt floated through the spindly corridors of the subterranean chamber for an unclear amount of time before his light went out.

Alone in the darkness, his body would soon be found just 10 feet from an exit – carrying an empty liquor bottle, which we can't blame him for.

Aspairt's grave is located in the quarry gallery where he breathed his last.

Centuries later, Asparit's voice is thought to be heard among the countless other dead, telling those who descend into the graves that they must go deeper and deeper every day at midnight.

It may not surprise you that the Catacombs have long been thought to be one of the most haunted places on earth.

Visitors regularly report seeing apparitions, voices, strange orbs and hands on their shoulders when no one is even present. Horror films like 2014's As Above, So Below use the winding graveyard as a portal to hell itself.

If you bring a candle into the Catacombs, as legend has it, Asparit's disembodied voice will be heard before the candle goes out.

However, he is the only confirmed death in the Catacombs.

Getting lost in the Catacombs is certainly not most people's idea of ​​fun. But in the early 1990s a group of Cataphiles emerged found a video camera to the ground.

The grainy black and white footage appeared to show the man exploring the tunnels, picking up bones as he went.

Then panic sets in. The man walks around and drops the VCR. The final shot is him running into the darkness, never to be seen again.

Filmmaker Francis Freedland eventually obtained the eerie lost footage and featured it in an episode of ABC Family's Scariest Places on Earth TV show in 2000.

The cameraman's identity has never been discovered, nor has his possible body, a fact that doesn't exactly help the Catacombs' reputation as a haunted house.

Internet sleuths have suggested over the years that the video is at best a hoax and at worst a publicity stunt by Freedland.

But are the Paris Catacombs haunted? It's hard to say, but one user and avid Catophile from the question-and-answer website Quora had a theory.

They remembered the time they and other adventurers snuck into the quarry for a midnight expectation, only to hear moans and whispers.

“Maybe it was just our imagination playing tricks on us in that dimly lit, bone-filled underworld, but it was undeniably creepy,” they said.

“Whether it's real or just a product of the creepy atmosphere,” the user added, “well, that's a mystery that continues to intrigue explorers like me.”

Contact our news team by sending an email to [email protected].

For more stories like this, view our news page.

MORE : These are the secrets of the Channel Tunnel as the historic hole turns 30

MORE : You can stay in the bell chamber of an iconic Parisian monument this summer, but there's a sneaky catch

MORE : Smugglers hide migrants in old Nazi bunkers before crossing the Channel

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and Google Privacy Policy And Terms of Service to apply.