from comment on http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/rewrite/remapping.html if you enter : <Directory /var/www/my_blog> FallbackResource index.php </Directory> into your vhosts file and then try to access : example.com/welcome/to/me/page you may get a 'Request exceeded the limit of 10 subrequest nesting levels' (Apache/2.2.16 (Debian)) To avoid this problem enter a '/' at the start of index.php to give you : <Directory /var/www/my_blog> FallbackResource /index.php </Directory>