clipped from www.dailymail.co.ukDating back to the 16th Century, the catacombs were dug under the Capuchin Monastery when it's original cemetary had been filled
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.
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clipped from www.dailymail.co.ukHung from hooks by their necks and feet, they wear expensive-looking clothes and their heads hang as if in prayer.
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clipped from www.dailymail.co.ukSome have been posed - two children sit side-by-side in a rocking chair - and men, women, virgins, children, monks and professionals have been separated.
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clipped from www.dailymail.co.ukBodies were hung on ceramic pipes in the catacombs, to dry out for up to eight months, before being washed with vinegar and exposed to the open air.
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clipped from www.dailymail.co.ukSome were then embalmed, while others were sealed in glass cases.
the tombs were officially closed in 1871.
The last person to be interred there was a small girl, aged only two, called Rosalia Lombardo, in 1920.
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