CRYPT (Lat. crypta, from κρύπτος, to conceal), a subterraneous cell or vault. The word is particularly used to designate that part of ancient churches and abbeys appropriated to the monuments of deceased persons. Ciampini, in describing the outside of the Vatican, speaks of the crypta of St Andrew, St Paul, and others. Vitruvius applies the term crypta to a part of a building answering nearly to our cellar; and Juvenal applies it to a cloaca. Hence also crypto-porticus, a subterraneous place arched or vaulted, as an under-work or passage in old walls. The term is sometimes used with less propriety for any passage or corridor.