Going underground in Paris

The tunnels are dank and gloomy, tainted by the darker chapters of the city's history. Now, they provide adventure for a new breed of explorers ? the Parisian 'cataphiles?

You can imagine the beautiful Esmeralda and her lover fleeing through these Catacombs while the bells of Notre Dame toll high above ground.

Or, you close your eyes and see the ghostly figure of The Phantom of the Opera fading in and out of the hidden chambers. Victor Hugo's Les Miserables was the most chilling reminder of the living seeking refuge among the dead.

These are the Catacombs of Paris, a vast network of underground galleries, tunnels and crypts, a relic from the French Revolution originally built to house the remains of tombs that had to make way for houses as the city expanded above ground.

Most of all, they are testimony to over two centuries of the city's historical heritage.

Apart from being repositories for millions of old bones, they were used as shelters by the French resistance during the Nazi occupation of Paris during World War II. Unknown to them, the Germans also went underground and used the Catacomb as an underground bunker.

These days, the only humans who venture underground are the new breed of urban explorers known as "cataphiles", who began restoring some of these old spaces in the 1960s.

There are no lights or electricity, no living creatures or fantastic urban legends - just the silence of the dark and echoes of the past.

An estimated 300 local explorers visit the Catacombs weekly by entering through secret entrances throughout the city. It is illegal, and trespassers are slapped with a warning and a small fine - but that's part of the excitement.

(China Daily 11/21/2010 page6)