During the Battle of Stalingrad
The fight went underground in the over 150 miles of tunnels beneath the city
The subterranean labyrinth went hundreds of feet down
It was expertly built with stone arches with a width of about 30 feet
There was a narrow gauge railway system
The older tunnels were the ones that were better made
Odessa in the Ukraine has over 1500 miles of catacombs
Carved into the limestone beneath the city
The catacombs under Paris hold the remains of many millions of people
At the Barriere d Enfur or Gates of Hell
There are 200 miles of bone lined walls
They look like an award that somebody or something accomplished
Only about 1 mile is open to the public
The Cathedral of St Stephans is Vienna
The Cathedral of St James in Brno Czechoslovakia
The Zapotec Catholic Church in Mexico
And Catholic churches in Lima Peru
Have openings in the floors that connect to underground catacombs
How many people sat silently in reverence and supplication
Only to be knocked in the head
Then dragged and thrown into trap doors
To be part of a secret recipe
Whose whitewashed skull and bones serve as a mute witness
To a brain dead public
In Alexandria Egypt
Are the Halls of Caracalla
If the word Caracalla reminds you of Dracula
Then you are on the right track
The island of Malta is well known for its underneath inhabitants
That display their former meals in weirdly decorated catacombs
Hells Kitchen in New York City
Is exactly what the name implies
And is located underground in secret passageways
What and who is exactly under our feet
The tunnels were not made as a hobby of quarrymen
We are told
Oh Its just the remains of people who died when disease spread because of overpopulation
It was fun to put them in neatly organized geometric layouts
And create an underground necropolis
Just below the floor of our most sacred institutions
Echoes the remains of ritualistic cannibalism
But why should one shudder with horror
When this is what we do to animals every day
When we quit doing it onto others
Maybe it will quit being done unto us!
