Members of the Igorot tribe of Mountain Province in northern Philippines have long practiced the tradition of burying their dead in hanging coffins, nailed to the sides of cliff faces high above the ground. Comfortably predating the arrival of the Spanish, the procedure can probably be traced back more than two millennia. To this day, […]
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A Host of Mummies, a Forest of Secrets
In the middle of a terrifying desert north of Tibet, Chinese archaeologists have excavated an extraordinary cemetery. Its inhabitants died almost 4,000 years ago, yet their bodies have been well preserved by the dry air. The cemetery lies in what is now China’s northwest autonomous region of Xinjiang, yet the people have European features, with […]
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Dargavs Village: City of the Dead
This ancient village and its adjoining cemetery have a beautiful history of death and remembrance.The village of Dargavs, or the City of the Dead, has an ancient cemetery where people that lived in the valley buried their loved ones along with their clothes and belongings. The valley stretches for 17 kilometers, and the cemetery contains […]
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Le Cimetière des Chiens — the Dog Cemetery in Asnières-sur-Seine
While the cemetery is commonly referred to as simply “Le Cimetière des Chiens,” you’ll see a few places where the longer name of “Le Cimetière des Chiens et Autres Animaux Domestiques” (the cemetery of dogs and other pets) is given, including an inscription in stone on a monument near the entrance. So the cemetery has […]
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Sucre’s General Cemetery
As you enter Sucre’s general cemetery, a bold sign above the imposing white entrance warns Hodie Mihi Cras Tibi: Today Me, Tomorrow You. Walking around the pristine gardens of the cemetery, the endless rows of stacked graves serves only to re-enforce this message. But with it comes a strange sense of peace. The palpable serenity […]
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Cemetery for the Homeless
For many people, homelessness in life also means indignity in death—an anonymous, budget burial. But things are changing in one major European city: CityLab’s Mimi Kirk writes that Copenhagen’s Assistens Cemetery in Denmark has set aside a section just for homeless people. More than 300,000 people are buried at Assistens, Denmark’s most famous graveyard. Previously, […]
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2,000 Year Old Pet Cemetery in Egypt
The ancient Egyptians had complicated relationships with animals. They kept a wide range of pets, from cats and dogs to hippos and falcons, and many household pets were mummified and buried with their owners. Animals were also mummified at an “industrial scale,” sold to pilgrims who offered the mummies to the gods. One catacomb at […]
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Père-Lachaise Cemetery Hailed the Most Visited Cemetery in the World
Père-Lachaise Cemetery, formal name Cimetiere de l’Est (“Cemetery of the East”), cemetery and park located on the northeast side of Paris, France. Situated on some 110 acres (44.5 hectares), amid more than 5,000 trees, it is both the largest park and the largest cemetery in Paris. Estimates concerning the number of people buried there vary […]
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Rare Spider Hides Out in London Cemetery Vaults for 150 Years
A rare species of orb weaver spider, Meta bourneti, turned up in the vaults of London’s Highgate Cemetery where it may have been lying low for the past 150 years. As an orb weaver, the species requires total darkness, so archeologists think the tombs made a perfect hideout for the spider, which normally lives in […]
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Buried Atop a Bed of Flowers
Sometime during our species’ ancient history, we began thinking about the bodies of our deceased family members and friends in a different way—as beings with emotional value that deserve ceremony respect, rather than simply as dead carcasses. Other animals simply leave their dead in place, and our earlier ancestors either did the same or buried […]
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