There are a whole host of weird and spooky tombs, ossuaries (a building or site which serves as the final resting place of human skeletal remains) and crypts around the world, housing hundreds and thousands of bones and many a dark secret.
We go in search of ten of the strangest.
Paris Catacombs
You wouldn’t think that underneath the sophisticated streets of the City Of Love lies the biggest collection of skeletons and skulls in the world.
For centuries the network of underground tunnels were used to bury the dead and have now become a tourist attraction for those looking for something slightly more sinister than the Eiffel Tower.
Santa Maria Della Concezione
"What you are now, we once were; what we are now, you shall be." So reads the plaque on the wall at the Santa Maria Della Concezione church in Rome, Italy. The words seem to come from the bodies of the 4,000 friars whose bones line the walls, showing visitors that all of life is fleeting.
Sedlec Ossuary
In a small Catholic chapel in Sedlec, Czech Republic, resting underneath a seemingly normal chapel lie the remains of up to 70,000 bodies, arranged in the sort of fashion that you might expect of a particularly determined serial killer.
This “bone church” was in fact created by a local woodcarver Frantisek Rint who was employed in the 1800s to use the remains of the local dead in a creative way.
Capela Dos Ossos
One of the scariest parts of this so-called Chapel of Bones in Évora, Portugal are the skeletons of a man and a child which are chained to the wall.
According to locals these are the remains of a father and son who were cursed after they treated the mother of the family poorly.
The Terracotta Army
Although the 8,000 soldiers that make up the Terracotta Army are well known as the force that Emperor Qin Shi Huang created to protect himself in the afterlife, what is less well known is that Qin Shi Huang also created an entire city in Shaanxi Province for his death. It featured palaces, towers and even one hundred rivers of mercury.
Mount Nemrut
When you see some of the incredible statues that adorn this mountain in Adiyaman, Southern Turkey you can understand why it’s listed as a World Heritage Site.
The tomb was originally built for King Antiochus I Theos who surrounded himself with 30ft high statues of eagles, lions, himself and a mixed bag of Greek and Armenian Gods.
Chapel of Skulls
This room within St Bartholomew's Church in the town of Czermna, Poland houses the bones of 3,000 people, while another 21,000 skeletons lie in the crypt beneath the church.
They were assembled by priest Vaclav Tomasek who wanted to create a "Sanctuary of Silence". His own skull is now numbered among those in the chapel he helped to create.
Tower Tombs of Palmyra
This kilometre wide necropolis stands outside the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria, and represents one of the grandest series of tombs on earth.
Dotted across the landscape are a series of limestone towers with intricately carved busts showing whose final resting place the tower is.
Brno Ossuary
Incredibly it was only in 2001 that an archaeological dig discovered the remains of over 50,000 people under St Jacob’s Square in Brno, Czech Republic. At one time the bodies would have been collected in an orderly fashion, but after being forgotten about chaos had reigned.
The city has painstakingly worked to restore order and hope to re-open Europe’s second biggest ossuary next year.
Pyramids of Egypt
Arguably, the most famous tombs of them all, the pyramids were built to house the bodies of the kings after they died, along with their pets, slaves and essential knick-knacks for a comfortable afterlife including chariots and boats.
When it comes to pyramids size definitely does matter as legend has it that the larger the pyramid, the higher the affection for the king.
The final Curious © phrase:
“As I grow older and older,
And totter toward the tomb,
I find that I care less and less,
Who goes to bed with whom”
(Dorothy L. Sayers)
