Old Quebec · The Lower Town Inside the Walls

Old Quebec is the only city north of Mexico that still has its full city wall. The upper town sits on the clifftop, the lower town by the water, and between them are steep slopes, a cable car and the “breakneck stairs”.

For more than three hundred years the French and the British fought over it again and again, through sieges and bombardments. The lower town was rebuilt after one fire after another, and beneath it lie the foundations and cellars of the old town.

Today the lanes hold restaurants and shops, and guides point to a corner of wall and say: under this wall there is another level, and no one has been inside it.

Historical Mysteries / Quebec City · Canada / 1608