Catacombs

= **Catacombs** =

Catacombs **are ancient, human-made subterranean passageways for burial or proteccion.**
====The word catacomb comes from the Latin "cata-tumba". Although the catacombs can be found all around the world they are normally associated with the Roman Empire. ====
 * Characteristics **


 * Catacomb decorations **

Include Inscriptions, paintings and other objects as ornaments, which were placed in the graves over the years. Most of these decorations were used to identify and immortalize the dead
 * Inscriptions **

They simply indicate how loving a couple was, or the love of parents and such.

Seen throughout the burial chambers on the walls and ceilings paintings gave the same ideas as the inscriptions
 * Paintings **

**History **
====The first place to be referred to as catacombs was the underground tombs of the Appian Way in Rome. The name of that late place was "catatumbae", a word of obscure origin. The word referred originally only to the Roman catacombs but was extended by 1836 to refer to any subterranean sites of the dead. ====

**People and Places **
====The first place to be referred to as catacombs were the underground tombs between the 2nd and 3rd milestones of the Appian Way in Rome, where the bodies of the apostles Peter and Paul, among others, were said to have been buried but now the word was extended to many other underground tombs on Earth. ====

__**Pictures**__
A procession in the San Callistus catacombs in Rome. Catacombs of Saint Sebastian - Rome Rome Catacombs - entrance Paris Catacombs