Crypt / Catacombes
These subterranean burial vaults were discovered under the city of Cartagena. They came to light when work was begun on the construction of a car park. The tombs are believed to date from the 17th century and were associated with the temple of a local Roman Catholic brotherhood called the San Jose Hermitage.
Note that the vaults are not big enough to admit the full length of a corpse. They are mere cupboards and were obviously designed to house the bones of men who had been exhumed. Burial here would have been a very costly business, and the remains are those of rich people who paid a regular subscription. No doubt they expected to rest in peace forever, but in the 19th century the cult was supressed and the temple was demolished... and the crypt was thereafter used as a rubbish dump.
The planned car park was never built, because while they were searching for possible remains of the temple the archaeologists came across the "Punic Wall" - the remains of part of the wall which the Phoenicians built around their city of Quart Hadst. In fact, the hermitage vaults were constructed inside the ancient wall.