By CLAIRE COHEN

Last updated at 00:38 01 May 2008

Imagine walking into a crumbling stone crypt and coming face to face with row upon row of carefully preserved mummies.

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.

Hung from hooks by their necks and feet, they wear expensive-looking clothes and their heads hang as if in prayer.

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Dating back to the 16th Century, the catacombs were dug under the Capuchin Monastery when it's original cemetary had been filled

Some have been posed - two children sit side-by-side in a rocking chair - and men, women, virgins, children, monks and professionals have been separated. Who are they and how did they get here? Dating back to the 16th century, the catacombs were dug under the Capuchin Monastery when it's original cemetery had been filled.

The first monk to be mummified was Silvestro of Gubbio, who attracted large crowds, with people travelling from all over the region to view - and pay their respects to - his body.

Although the catacombs were originally intended only for the deceased friars of Capuchin (the same religious order that gave us the cappuccino coffee), it soon became apparent that the rich and famous wanted their dead relatives to be buried there as a status symbol.

In fact, some local luminaries altered their wills, asking to be interred in the catacombs, wearing specific clothes which could be changed by their family at regular intervals.

This was a way to preserve status and dignity even in death, by being clothed in the latest fashions and the most expensive cloth (although monks wore their everyday clothing and any ropes they had worn as penance).

It has been rumoured that the body of Spanish painter Velasquez is at Capuchin, but the exact position is unknown.

As well as providing clothing for their deceased, and generally keeping them looking presentable, grieving relatives gave financial donations to the monastery, which helped maintain the catacombs and guarantee their loved one a permanent spot at the site.

If the relatives ceased to pay these contributions, then the body would be removed from its resting place and left on a shelf until more money arrived.

The Sicilians used a unique process of mummification.

Bodies 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.

Some were then embalmed, while others were sealed in glass cases. This remained the method of mummification until the tombs were officially closed in 1871.

But there are a few bodies that managed to escape notice by the authorities and were placed in the crypt as recently as the beginning of the 20th century.

The Sicilians are proud of their catacombs and place great importance on visiting and praying for their dead.

Indeed, until only a few years ago they were still able to change the clothes of long-deceased family members.

On specific days, they were also permitted to hold the hands of the mummies and join their deceased relatives in prayer, as the Capuchin monks had originally intended over 400 years ago.

The last person to be interred there was a small girl, aged only two, called Rosalia Lombardo, in 1920.

She reputedly died of pneumonia and was embalmed by a doctor called Alfredo Salafia - the only person in Capuchin capable of doing the embalming.

Her body survives almost entirely intact - from her dark blonde flowing hair to her delicate eyelashes.

Dr Salafia took the secrets of his remarkable embalming process to the grave, but Rosalia Lombardo continues to fascinate the many tourists who visit her.