A Catalogue of Useless Facts

The Mines of Paris

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The Mines of Paris
- history / landmarks -

​​The Mines of Paris are a large network of abandoned mining tunnels under the modern city of Paris. Believed to date back to the 1200s, many of the tunnels were not formally mapped, allowing much of the network to be lost or forgotten as the city expanded. After a cave-in destroyed a large section of street in the 1770s, the French government created a department to identify, access, and repair failing sections of the mines.

In the 1780s, a mile-long segment (1.7 km) of the tunnels was converted for use as an ossuary (a site for storing skeletal remains) as a solution to massive cemetery overcrowding within the city walls. These would become the famous Catacombs of Paris.

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Sources ▼

https://www.npr.org/2011/01/30/133308592/parisunderground
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/catacombes-de-paris