Corner

Good shot it looks wonderfully creepy.

Simply breathtaking.

THAT is SO beautiful!
Looks like golden sunlight with clouds drifting by.

Forgotten, silent place
Forbidding is my tomb
Nary a sound to interrupt
My wearisome existence

Dust motes slowly turning
In golden rays of sun
Honeyed light deters the night
Alas! The day toils onward

Behind is left the gloom and dark
The silence is oppressive
Heavy blackness piercing
Eyes too blind to see

Laid to rest in velvet splendor
My robes, tattered and torn
'twould take but a touch so gentle
To crumble and fall to dust

Would someone light a candle
Bring back the golden light
Chase away the darkness
So I can feel less alone?

I love the brightness of this pic, the greens and yellows are like sunshine in what should be a dreary place.

I wonder, even with the double caskets that they all seem to have, would it have smelled at all when a new one was put in there?

Beautiful poem, Twug!
You have a quite the gift! : )

Is this room big, or is it the cascets that are small?

Thank-you, ladyhawke!

Its strange, i wonder how old the building is by comparrison. as it doesnt look that old...so maybe peope have had to move the caskets?

Beautiful poem, Twug! Very appropriate to this beautiful place. They must have been very important people to be in a crypt that held only 15 caskets. I've never seen anything like this before. These caskets must have cost a good deal of money, with their workmanship. And not disturbed! Any grave robbers would have at least taken the crowns.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust!

I too love the poem Twug and I agree with both Janice and Lynne. This place is both breathtaking and the resting place of some very important people.

Thank-you!

looks so peaceful, yet kinda creepy

Erin, as I looked at these pics, I was asking myself the same (somewhat morbid) question that you asked. I personally don't have any experience with crypts as everyone who has passed in my life was buried and not crypted. (cryptified? crypticated?) But like you I wonder if one were to visit a place like this say a month or two after someone was laid to rest, would the air in there be just a little too much to bear? Have coffins always been made completely airtight, even back in the days when ones such as these were placed?

Twug; Awsome poem!!!!!
Potatoe; Coffins weren't sealed, as we think of, until the mid 20th century. I know that back in the "Wild West" days of the US (which extended up until the early 1900's). People were just burried in a pine box. In fact, some states (by law) don't require embalmbing to this day. As for the smell, those coffins were sealed pretty good. I don't think the smell would be that bad.

Exactly why you get buried '6 feet under'. Its the legal depth per smell ratio. haha.

As for these places, when they're lasting trhoughout eternity (as have done so far) the initial decomposition period is insignicnat really.

Thanks, Twug, for the beautiful poem.

Beautiful colours.... *jaw drops in stupidor*

A time laps shot would be wonderful here.. to see the water come and go leaving the minrals behind...

Another thing to consider is that while embalming and airtight seals may not have been around when these souls were laid to rest, they did use other types of incense and ointments to...combat the smell. Also, I doubt very seriously that many people would be re-entering a crypt any time soon after someone was interred. I'm sure there was some part of their culture or lore that forbade it.

Don't erase my comments. They are relevant

wow, such a shot... The lighting and warm colours make me think of a place that's more alive than dead!

Oh, and Twug, that's quite a talent you have there! I enjoyed your poem very much ^__^

Solitary Eternity.

Erin
I recently attended the funeral of a woman who was being laid to rest in a crypt. This is a high end arrangement, with all available precautions taken to ensure the comfort of visitors.
Despite this, the smell was atrocious. It was not overwhelming, but was present. A smell that stays with you for quite some time afterwards.

The light is warm and comforting. It definately melts away the creepiness.

I would like to open a nice bottle of wine with my girl. And then after enjoying the solitude of the wine and vastness. I would like to shake the cob-webs off the floor :) Hey, it is a differnet place and I can mark that off as being done.

ummm,yellowy...

Let us not forget the syndrome of ages past wherein people APPEARED to be dead, but were not. Some WERE buried alive,but precuations were taken,such as holding a Wake (delay burial incase person revives)or running a string down into the casket with a bell at the other end above ground,with an attendant camping-out standing by (graveyard shift)
In Greenmount (Phila.),there is a spot I dubbed "The Hillside of Death" because of the large number of interments there in the summer of 1998,even with concrete bunkers and enbalming,you could still trace the stench.Could be why people used to get bombed at funerals in the old days.

And I agree: nice poem.

This photo is amazing and whatever it is on the walls adds an interesting touch. Thank you for being so respectful of this place and sharing it with us at the same time. Nice poem....

NIce poem twug. iam amazed no one has comented on this photo since Feb.

Those greenish-yellow walls stained with that bizarre white goo reminds me of what it might be like to be trapped inside a giant beehive

again, the empty space is creeping me out.

Lemon meringue.

awsome and spooky.