carved plate - "catacombes de paris" - catacombs of paris (off-limit area)

Carved plate indicating location (rue Saint-Jacques, under a hotel)

The "Saint" part of the street name was omited during the french revolution when the plate was carved, and a small "st" was added later.­

Catacombs of Paris (off-limit area), about 20 meters (60 feet) underground, under Paris city center.­

This is a part of the 200 Km network of ancient tunnels not opened to the public, but regularly visited by trespassing urban cavers called "cataphiles".­ See more information in the description of the photo album.

This photo was taken using the 180mm Raynox fisheye extension.­ The barrel distorsion was later corrected in Photoshop using the Panorama-tools plugin filters.­