How long can you spend in the catacombs?

The tour of the Catacombs is deep underground. The walking route is about 2km, about 1.25 miles and the average independent visit takes around one hour. You will first descend 130 steps down to the Catacombs and then at the end it's an 83-step climb to street level.



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These catacombs have a fascinating history, originally built as limestone quarries in the late 18th century, they later became the final resting place for millions of Parisians' skeletal remains. It's a unique blend of history and a bit of the eerie, which makes it a must-visit attraction in Paris.

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Even though it's illegal to access parts of the catacombs other than the site open to visitors, there's a group of urban explorers called “Cataphiles” who navigate the tunnels secretly.

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How to dress ? You can leave your boots at home, but be sure to wear comfortable shoes! However, waiting in front of the entrance can be long, even in winter, so don't forget to dress warmly.

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However, the strong smell of the Paris catacombs is apparently what all the initial signs were warning sensitive visitors about. At best, it could be likened to the dusty, incense-infused scent of old stone churches, but with an underlying malaise that can only be attributed to the contents of multiple cemeteries.

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The Paris Catacombs have a fascinating history which dates back to ancient times, and is the final resting place of over 6 million Parisians.

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The temperature underground in the Catacombs is about 57° F (14° C), much cooler than Paris in summer. Bring a sweater, jacket, or scarf to help with the chill.

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To ensure preservation of the site, you must not eat or drink on the site circuit, and animals are not allowed. Any kind of alcohol is prohibited. And, of course, you must not touch the bones, which are the fragile remains of millions of Parisians.

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The Paris catacombs are a cool 14 Celsius / 57 Fahrenheit year-round, and often a bit damp as well, so this isn't the place for sundresses! Opt for comfortable shoes to navigate the slightly uneven terrain, and bring a jacket for comfort.

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Despite the ritual with which they were transferred, the bones had simply been dumped into the tunnels in large heaps. Slowly but surely the quarrymen lined the walls with tibias and femurs punctuated with skulls which form the basis of most of the decorations that tourists see today.

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Some areas of the tunnels even became shrines for martyrs buried there. But after Christianity was legalized in 313 AD, funerals moved above ground, and by the 5th Century, the use of catacombs as grave sites dwindled, though they were still revered as sacred sites where pilgrims would come to worship.

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On exiting the Catacombs you will be searched to make sure you have brought no bones with you. There are no toilets or facilities during the tour and note you may have been queueing for some time before entry. There are guided tours you can purchase.

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Hygiene. Both catacombs were dug largely for hygiene reasons. Rotting bodies in the middle of a city is not ideal, especially when they start piling up as they did in Paris. Both catacombs were created to avoid disease, but in Rome, they thought ahead.

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Like Rome, it has vast underlying passageways and quarries, called catacombs. This labyrinth of tunnels is thought to cover around 800 hectares — that's nearly 2,000 acres — beneath the city, though only a small part is explored and open to the public.

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It may have been one of the largest and most prosperous cities in the Western World but its own rapid growth was causing the city's cemeteries to literally overflow with the bodies of the dead.

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That year, a prolonged period of spring rain caused a wall around Les Innocents to collapse, spilling rotting corpses into a neighboring property. The city needed a better place to put its dead. So it went to the tunnels, moving bones from the cemeteries five stories underground into Paris' former quarries.

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1. The Catacombs of Paris. Among the most famous catacombs in the world, the Paris Catacombs are underground quarries, housing approximately six million human skeletons.

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