ladykrampus reblogged
ladykrampus reblogged
ladykrampus reblogged
Inside France’s Empire of the Dead… startling images of the skulls and bones that line catacombs under Paris You would have to look closely for one of its obscure entrances in the French capital of Paris.
But should you stumble upon one, it reveals an underground world of the dark, dank, narrow tunnels with a fascinating history.
Below the City of Light’s 12million residents lie the remains of 6million others - known as France’s Empire of the Dead, a world which is brought to life in a new documentary on CNN.
The Paris catacombs are a 200-mile network of old caves, tunnels and quarries - and much of it is filled with the skulls and bones of the dead.
xmorbidcuriosityx
Full story and more photographs here.
Source: Daily Mail
ladykrampus reblogged
Symbols - Catacombs of St. Sebastian, Rome
Source: historyhuntersinternational.org
ladykrampus reblogged
fuckyeahthebizarre-deactivated2
A Killer Catacomb On January 1st 2005, a young Ukranian teenage girl named Masha put on her make-up, packed up some champagne, and headed out for her New Years Eve nights party. She was headed into the Odessa catacombs (the largest catacomb system in the world), the 2,500 kilometers of dark rocky tunnels which run underneath the city.
The catacombs were once the preferred hideout of rebels, criminals, and eccentrics. During WWII Ukrainian rebel groups hid within the labyrinthian catacombs and today there is an entire Ukrainian subculture of catacomb explorers with dozens of semiprofessional groups, often quite competitive, exploring the catacombs. They go on multi-day underground treks, known as expeditions, to document and map the system. It took a full two years before the police were able to locate her body and retrieve it from the catacombs. Her body had been partially mummified by the cold cool air. Based on where she was found it is believed Masha spent at least three days wandering in the freezing cold and pitch black before dying of dehydration.
ladykrampus reblogged
fuckyeahthebizarre-deactivated2
The Sleeping Beauty Rosalia Lombardo was an Italian child born in 1918 in Palermo, Sicily. She died of pneumonia on December 6, 1920. Rosalia’s father, General Lombardo, was sorely grieved upon her death, so he approached Alfredo Salafia, a noted embalmer, to preserve her. Her body was one of the last corpses to be admitted to the Capuchin catacombs of Palermo in Sicily. Thanks to Salafia’s embalming techniques, the body was well-preserved. X-rays of the body show that all the organs are remarkably intact. Rosalia Lombardo’s body is kept in a small chapel at the end of the catacomb’s tour and is encased in a glass covered coffin, placed on a marble pedestal. A 2009 National Geographic photograph of Rosalia Lombardo shows the mummy is beginning to show signs of decomposition, most notably discoloration. To address these issues the mummy was moved to a new drier spot in the catacombs, and her original coffin was placed in a hermetically sealed glass enclosure with nitrogen gas to prevent decay. The mummy of Rosalia Lombardo has since been removed from its hermetically sealed enclosure and returned to its original location alongside two other child mummies. The mummy is one of the best preserved bodies in the catacombs. Recently, the mummification techniques used by Salafia were discovered in a handwritten memoir of Salafia’s. Salafia replaced the girl’s blood with a liquid made of formalin to kill bacteria, alcohol to dry the body, glycerin to keep her from overdrying, salicylic acid to kill fungi, and zinc salts to give her body rigidity. Accordingly, the formula’s composition is “one part glycerin, one part formalin saturated with both zinc sulfate and chloride, and one part of an alcohol solution saturated with salicylic acid.”
"The mummy of Rosalia Lombardo has since been removed from its hermetically sealed enclosure and returned to its original location alongside two other child mummies."
Ooooooh Noooo... After all that effort to protect her they put her back?