One of the most interesting plates of the official ossuary. This part of the catacombs is hidden to the public.
It is inscribed "Catacombs low" while the corridor descends into a lower part of the quarry. The bones are placed in bulk.

An engraved plaque in the catacombs of Paris:

Optima quæque dies miseris mortalibus ævi.
Prima fugit, subeunt morbi, tristisque senectus:
Et labor, et duræ rapit inclementia mortis.
Georg. Virgil.lib III V.66.

This place is called Quarrymen's footbath but it's particularity is to be the first geological drilling in Paris, in the oldest medieval quarry of Port-Mahon, close to the official Paris catacombs.

This place is called Quarrymen's footbath but it's particularity is to be the first geological drilling in Paris, in the oldest medieval quarry of Port-Mahon, close to the official Paris catacombs.

This place is called Quarrymen's footbath but it's particularity is to be the first geological drilling in Paris, in the oldest medieval quarry of Port-Mahon, close to the official Paris catacombs.

The catacombs of Paris are actually municipal ossuaries. In fact, in the late 18th century, Parisian cemeteries were saturated. They moved the dead from mass graves in former quarries under Paris. Thus were born the catacombs of Paris.