By CLAIRE COHEN
Imagine walking into a crumbling stone crypt and coming face to face with row upon row of carefully preserved mummies.
It sounds like something out of a horror movie - except this is the macabre sight which greets thousands of tourists in Palermo, Sicily, each year.
A total of 8,000 mummies are housed in niches along the walls of the Capuchin Catacombs.
Hung from hooks by their necks and feet, they wear expensive-looking clothes and their heads hang as if in prayer.
Dating back to the 16th Century, the catacombs were dug under the Capuchin Monastery when it's original cemetary had been filled Some have been posed - two children sit side-by-side in a rocking chair - and men, women, virgins, children, monks and professionals have been separated. Who are they and how did they get here? Dating back to the 16th century, the catacombs were dug under the Capuchin Monastery when it's original cemetery had been filled.
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# Posted by Michelle Moran @ |
Thursday, May 01, 2008