Lima the Gray Octopus, Peru

And Catacombs

World Heritage Site! Need I say more? No, I don’t. It is also known as the Franciscan Monastery. The tomb of El Conquistador of Peru, Francisco Pizarro, lies here. Do you know what? His body was lying here for a hundred years in a glass casket and then one day, in 1984, they discovered – it wasn’t him! So for a hundred years, people had been paying their due respects to the janitor. And it’s high time, too. They found Sr. Pizarro’s head in a lead box. His bones and the bones of a few of his relatives were in a wooden box underneath the altar.

Our tour of the church was led by a lady who seemed bored and slightly impatient when I wanted to stop to examine the choir. It is a room lined with Baroque cedarwood carvings of the saints, including depicting how the saint died. We were the only ones in the group so it’s not like I was holding anyone up. Whatever happened to “the customer is always right?” Or, just leave the customer alone for 5 minutes.

Three More Layers

Secret passageways are leading to the Cathedral and Holy (Spanish) Inquisition Tribunal. Very creepy. Anything to do with The Spanish Inquisition is scary. In fact, maybe a lot of the deceased were victims of the Inquisition. I can’t believe the catacombs were not “discovered” until 1943. There must’ve been church people who knew they were there all along. After I arrived home. I read on their site that no photographs are allowed in the catacombs, but I took a few and no one stopped me. Why would they not allow photography?

70,000 bodies lie here. There are even more bodies below the catacombs that we visited. Three more floors of bones lay buried and they remain untouched because the area is too fragile. Leave them alone. Let them rest in peace.

A few openings like this in the floor dotted our traverse above the ossuary. Who arranged the bones in this fashion? Why? Our guide could not answer any of my questions.

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The reason why the nave in a church is called a nave has to do with the navy. Well, it has to do with the word navis meaning ship in Latin. This long main part of the church looks like a ship turned upside down.