Sticking with the catacombs theme for our favourite photos series, we found this other cool pic from the Catholic Church’s catacombs in Lima, Peru.

These subterranean catacombs of Lima’s first cemetary have been around since the 16th century and are located under the San Francisco Church in Lima’s downtown Plaza de Armas. They were rediscovered in 1951 and contain the bones of around 25,000 people.

When they were discovered, the bones were in disarray and scattered everywhere as they were originally dumped uncerimoniously into a pit (after they bodies had decomposed in teh church graves). An archaeologist thought they would be a bigger drawcard for tourists if they were laid out in artistic patterns.. and well, it looks like he was right.

Astonishingly, the catacombs have survived, despite a series of earthquakes. If you’re really keen to see this site, they have tours of the church that you can go on.

The guy who took this photo says the green glow coming from the top skull was not put in by him. Sorry, but we have to call bullshit on that one.