Fun Fact: There Are 3 Times As Many Skeletons in the Paris Catacombs as People in Paris.
According to Wikipedia, the population of Paris in January 2023 was 2,102,650, and the Paris Catacombs contain over six million skeletons.
Beneath the glittering lights of Paris lies a shadowy secret: the Catacombs, an underground ossuary holding the remains of over six million people—three times the city’s current population. But how did they get there?
In the late 18th century, Paris’s cemeteries were so overcrowded that walls of some nearby cellars began collapsing, dumping skeletons into basements and forcing city officials to act. Their solution? Relocating the remains into the city’s abandoned limestone quarries, creating a macabre underground world, hidden away beneath the bright city lights above.
After all, you can’t have lights without shadows—and for every Parisian basking in the City Of Light, there are three skeletons resting quietly (I hope) in the shadows below.