Gargoyles have a functional purpose, usually as water spouts to direct rain away from a cathedrals walls, whereas chimeras are used as simple decorations. At Notre Dame most are on the façade, seated on a gallery, watching the people below and scanning all of Paris. The sculptors really used their imagination on these statues. They are animal and human figures, half-man and half-beast, grotesque, horrific, fantastic creatures with eagles’ beaks and wings, lions’ talons, serpents’ tails