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The World's Most Stunning Cemeteries
Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo originally belonged to the Aoyama family before becoming Japan's first public cemetery. It's famous for its cherry blossoms, which draw visitors from March through early May.
Thelife1 min readAmerican greats from Mary Randolph, a descendant of Pocahontas, to President John F. Kennedy are buried in the 624 acres of Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.
Baguio Public Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Baguio City on Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines. The roughly 19,000 pristine white graves are packed on the mountainside that reaches over 16,000 feet above sea level.
Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Ga. epitomizes Southern Gothic style. Academy Award-winning lyricist Johnny Mercer and Georgia's first governor Edward Telfair are among those buried in the 100-acre cemetery. John Berendt’s book, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," featured statues from the cemetery on its cover.
The Brion family commissioned a graveyard in Treviso, north of Venice, Italy, that abuts the existing municipal cemetery. The Brions made their fortune founding an electronics company in Italy, and the respected Italian architect Carlo Scarpa designed the memorial in 1968.
The First Cemetery of Athens opened in 1837 as the official cemetery of the city in Greece. There are three churches on the grounds that are dotted with pines, cypresses and Hellenistic-style marble sculptures to mark the graves.
Called a "theme park necropolis," the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles is the final resting place for slapstick comedian Stan Laurel (of Laurel and Hardy fame), the ostentatious musician Liberace, and 'Fast and Furious' star Paul Walker.
The Granary Burying Ground, founded in 1660, is the third-oldest cemetery in Boston and sits right in the heart of downtown. Paul Revere and fellow American compatriots in the Revolutionary War are buried here, along with some signers of the Declaration of Independence like Samuel Adams.
Highgate Cemetery opened in 1839 on the outskirts of London. It's filled with Gothic tombs and statues. Shrubs and flowers have been planted and allowed to grow wild to increase the Gothic feel. Highgate also features planned paths dug through the hillside like the Circle of Lebanon, seen here.
La Recoleta cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was designed by a French architect in 1822 as an ostentatious display of 19th century funerary architecture. It's full of private bourgeoisie family crypts. Argentina's most famous first lady Eva Peron has one of the most visited graves in the complex.
Maqbaratoshoara in northwestern Iran is a mausoleum for poets, mystics and other famous intellectuals of the area. The structure was built in the mid-1970s, but artists have been buried on the site starting in 1072 with the death of the writer Asadi Tusi, who was famous for creating a lexicon of the Modern Persian language.
Marigot is the capital of the French side of St. Martin island. Because the water table is so high here, the Marigot Cemetery features no in-ground graves. Here you can visit the mausoleum of François-Auguste Perrinon, a businessman and activist for the abolition of slavery.
Martyrs' Lane in Baku, Azerbaijan, has interred those killed by the Soviet Army during Black January, a violent crackdown on the country following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. About 15,000 people are buried in the cemetery's hillside lane that offers views of the Caspian Sea.
The Merry Cemetery, on the border between Romania and the Ukraine, is famous for its blue painted grave markers that depict scenes from the deceased's life. Each marker also features an anecdote about the person's life written in verse. According to local Dacian culture, death is a moment to joyously anticipate a better life beyond.
Mount Herzl, named for the founder of modern political Zionism, sits in Jerusalem as Israel's national cemetery. Landscape Architect Haim Giladi laid out the grounds, which house the burials of Israel's prime ministers, presidents and honorable military leaders.
Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow is full of statues honoring Russian dignitaries and is bordered by a brick wall with plaques commemorating other deceased. The first president of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin is buried here, as well as famous Russian author Anton Chekhov.
The Passy Cemetery, established in 1820 by a Napoleonic edict, sits just west of downtown Paris with the Eiffel Tower in the background from almost every angle. The composer Claude Debussy is buried here along with several other writers, actors and artists.
The Cemetery of Punta Arenas near the southern tip of Chile opened in April 1894 and recently became a National Monument of Chile. Carefully planned avenues link two stories worth of tombs of the region's founding families. It also features European cypress trees sculpted into surreal shapes.
The South Park Street Cemetery in Kolkata, India, is one of the earliest cemeteries in the world not connected to a church. It opened in 1767, built on former marshland. The tombs mix Gothic and Indo-Saracenic style, which features black basalt carvings reverent of the Hindu faith.
The first land for Waverley Cemetery, just outside of Sydney, Australia, was purchased in 1875. Its most striking feature is its location along the cliffs overlooking the Tasman Sea.
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