Dead Interesting Graveyards

Do you get creeped out when you see or even think about graveyards? As spooky as graveyards may be, they are also very interesting places connected with history or notable inhabitants. Such places can also inspire profound thoughts about life and what our existence on Earth might really mean

La Chiesa dei Morti

  Chiesa dei Morti, or the Church of the Dead, Urbania, Italy 

If you happen to journey to Urbania in central Italy, then make your way to the Baroque Church of the Dead, where you will encounter the fascinating mummies cemetery. The 18 mummified bodies have been displayed here since 1833, when the bodies of these people were exhumed and found to be mummified. Standing macabrely inside glass cases, the bodies were naturally mummified by a mould which consumed the moisture of the bodies.

The mummies are cared for by the Brotherhood of Good Death, an order founded 400 years ago. They also conduct tours where you can learn facts about the mummies, like who was murdered and which one had Down's syndrome.

Sagada "hanging coffins"

 

Sagada graveyard is located in the Philippines, north of Manilla, in a town called Banaue. It is a local custom here, for the elderly people of the village to make their own coffin before they died. After death, the coffin containing the body would be placed in a cave, or it would be attached to the face of a cliff. The idea behind the "hanging coffins" was to protect the dead from being taken by animals. 

Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague

Cemetery in the Jewish Quarter of Prague in the Czech Republic 

This cemetery located in the Jewish Quarter of Prague in the Czech Republic began to be used in the early15th century. It is uncertain how many people are buried here, but it may be as many as 100,000. There are, however, 12,000 visible tombstones.

The Jewish, Halakhah, forbade the removal of graves, and so, as the cemetery ran out of space, they were forced to remove the tombstones, add another layer soil and then replace the tombstones on top. There are about 12 layers of graves.

The Neptune Memorial Reef

Underwater gates

This underwater mausoleum for cremated remains is a man-made reef covering over 600,000 square feet (65,000 m²) of the ocean floor, at a depth of 40 feet. There are plans to build an underwater city here, 5.2 km off the coast of Key Biscayne, Florida, with underwater roads leading to a central feature with benches and statues.

Megalithic tombs, Borger-Odoorn, Netherlands

 

Megalithic tombs are above ground burial chambers built of large stone slabs (megaliths). There are many of these ancient style tombs found across Atlantic Europe and the Mediterranean, which were mostly built by Neolithic farming communities. The archaeological evidence suggests that these communities used these tombs for the long-term housing of the remains of their dead.

Wadi-us-Salaam, Najaf, Iraq

Wadi Al-Salaam is an Islamic cemetery located in Shia holy city of Najaf, Iraq. This cemetery is reputed to be the largest cemetery in the world, with millions of bodies residing in its 6 km² area. It is estimated that more than half a million bodies are interred here every year.