Different peoples have their own faith, their own culture and their own burial rituals for the dead. It is for this reason that cemeteries in different countries of the world differ so much from each other. Next, we suggest taking a look at what cemeteries look like in different parts of our planet.

Huamauca, Northern Argentina

In the Wamauk cemetery, all the graves, as can be seen from the photographs, are guarded by gnomes. Their houses can be seen above each burial. During the day, all the gnomes were at work in the city of Khukhui, so, sorry, none of them were included in the frame. The cemetery watchman, as beautiful as a fucking god, played an improvised guitar for us, charging an impromptu 3 pesos for his performance.

Venice, Italy. Cemetery of San Michele

For a long time, there was a monastery in the fortress on the island, then a prison, but by order of Napoleon I, the island was transformed in 1807 into an exclusive burial place for Venetians. The cemetery has three sections: Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant. Among our people here are Diaghilev, Brodsky, and the Stravinsky couple.

Varanasi, India

Everything is simple here: no cemeteries. The body burned on the fire for several hours, the ashes went down into the Ganges, and that was it. In these places there is a complete ban on photography.

Granada, Nicaragua. Cemetery of Granada

Bandar Lampung, Indonesia

Noratus village, Armenia

Sepanca village, Romania

One of the most famous cemeteries in the world. It’s even called the Merry Cemetery (Chimitirul-Vesel). Once upon a time, local resident Ion Petrash began decorating crosses with ornaments and depicting pictures from the lives of the dead, accompanying the drawings with ironic comments in the first person. Among the capital pearls on the crosses are:
“My mother-in-law lies here. If she had lived a year longer, then I would be lying here”;
“The deceased was a bitter drunkard and a bully. He constantly annoyed his neighbors until he was run over by a car to the delight of the entire village”;
“The thing I loved most in my life was sitting at a bar next to someone’s wife.”

At the cemetery there is a workshop of the successors of Petrash’s work, and theoretically it is possible to place an order for a multi-colored tombstone there; prices start from €200. However, each case is considered individually by the master.

Bukittinggi, Indonesia

Iraq. Wadi al-Salam cemetery

It is considered the largest cemetery in the world. The name of this Shiite cemetery means “Valley of Peace” in Arabic. Located in Iraq near the city of An-Najaf. During the occupation of Iraq by American troops, rebels were hiding in the “Valley of Peace.”

Bagdati, Georgia

My favorite cemetery. Tombstones are like posters for performances where the main characters played their last role.

Kandy, Sri Lanka

Now this is the most famous Sri Lankan cemetery with the secret burial place of Tupac Shakur.

Saint-Paul de Vence, France

The most famous burial is the grave of Marc Chagall.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Recoleta Cemetery, considered the most beautiful cemetery in the world. When Maradona dies, he will probably rest in Recoleta, because only Argentinean gods are buried here (although I came across a couple of Armenian burials: but the Armenians probably first became Argentines and then gods). In the meantime, the main attraction at this festival of tombstones and sculptures is the tomb of Evita Peron. I don’t have photographs of this crypt, because at that moment some girl with a lollipop was photographed in front of it.

Sri Lanka. Cemetery near Hikkaduwa

Lviv, Ukraine

Lychakiv cemetery. There are about 500 sculptures and tombstones of completely different architectural styles and designs and more than 2,000 crypts.

At the Lychakiv cemetery there is also a large area reserved for the Polish military cemetery of 1918–1920. One of the most majestic war memorials in Eastern Europe. After World War II, the Polish memorial was destroyed and looted. And during the same Soviet era, excavators and tanks simply razed it to the ground and there was nothing left that would remind of the former glory of the Polish boys who died for the liberation of Lvov. And only after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, with the money of the Polish government and the Polish diaspora, restoration work began to restore the memorial.

Barcelona, ​​Spain. Eastern Cemetery

Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

Havana, Cuba. Christopher Columbus Cemetery

Boracay Island, Philippines

Village Mogila, Macedonia

Well, it goes without saying that the most important attraction of the Mogila is the cemetery! Mr. Dusan Lopaticki with a mustache like an Austrian-Bavarian burgher smiled at me from the tombstone. And finally, a few “non-human” cemeteries.

Paris, France. Dog cemetery

It began in 1899, with the creation of the French Anonymous Society for the Construction of a Cemetery for Dogs and Cats. Here they began to bury various animals with honor and respect, erecting real monuments and caring for them: in addition to the above, walking between the rows of graves, you can see photographs of birds, monkeys and even lions. The biggest star is the dog actor Rin Tin Tin (1918–1932). It is believed that it was this dog that saved the Warner Bros. film company. from bankruptcy.

Border section of Western Sahara and Mauritania

Cemetery of TVs thrown away from the Moroccan side. The territory of Western Sahara theoretically belongs to Morocco.

Mauritania. Cemetery of lost ships

The port of Nouadhibou is the last refuge of more than 300 old ships abandoned by their owners. Over the years, corrupt officials have taken bribes from ship owners to allow them to abandon them on these shores. Unfortunately, it was not possible to film anything more clearly due to prohibitions on filming by the people who worked there.

Lake Uyuni, Bolivia

The cemetery for old steam locomotives is located near the salt lake. It represents the remains of several rusted trains.

An-Najaf is a southern city in Iraq. It is located on the right bank of the Euphrates River. About 900 thousand people live in the city. This locality is the main southern Iraqi city for Shiite Muslims. It is second only to Medina and Mecca in terms of the number of pilgrims who visit it every year.

But An-Najaf is famous not only for this. The city has the largest cemetery in the world. Its area is six square kilometers. According to some estimates, 5-6 million people are buried here. Moreover, ordinary residents, politicians, scientists, as well as thinkers and imams of Iraq and other Muslim countries found their last refuge in this cemetery.

The cemetery is called Wadi al-Salam. If we translate the name into Russian, it means “Valley of Death”. And the disadvantage of this cemetery is that the deceased are buried in a small space, that is, there is no more than one square meter per grave.

Several years ago, UNESCO decided to include the Wadi al-Salam cemetery as a World Heritage Site. For this purpose, a delegation went to An-Najaf to discuss the topic. But US representatives had a completely different view on this issue - during the invasion of Iraq, American troops attacked both militants and landmarks, including cemeteries. However, there are smaller graveyards in the world, but still large-scale. And here are some of them.

Golgotha

More than 3 million people are buried in Calvary Cemetery in New York. And the churchyard was named after Mount Golgotha, where, according to legend, Christ was crucified. The cemetery is divided into four sectors. Each is located in a different part of New York. The resting place was founded in 1848 and belongs to the Roman Catholic Church. Representatives of the mafia are buried here along with prominent social and political figures, actors and athletes. And it was in this cemetery that the famous film “The Godfather” was filmed, for example, the episode when Don Corleone’s funeral took place.

Northern cemetery in Rostov-on-Don

The Northern Cemetery, which is located in the north of Rostov-on-Don, is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. It is not only the largest in terms of territory in Russia, but also the largest in Europe. It is located on 350 hectares of land, more than 400 thousand people are buried here. On the territory there is the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a columbarium and a crematorium. And at the main entrance there is a Poklonny Stone, a memorial composition with an Orthodox cross. The cemetery was founded in 1972.

The largest cemetery in Europe

Corraumore

Among the prehistoric burial grounds, the Corraumor churchyard is rightfully considered the largest. It is located in northern Ireland, in County Sligo. The cemetery is the oldest megalithic complex. There are exactly 60 ancient burial grounds on an area of ​​4 kilometers. And the oldest dates back to the Neolithic era, that is, it appeared before Stonehenge, Newgrange and the Egyptian pyramids.

The largest stone pyramid of the churchyard is Listogil, which has a diameter of 34 meters. And most of the tombs are dolmens, which are made of stones of a certain shape. And the secrets of these structures haunt archaeologists, scientists and esotericists to this day.

Arlington National Cemetery

It is located near the Pentagon and occupies approximately 2.5 square kilometers of land. More than 300 thousand people are buried in the military cemetery. The graves commemorate state military conflicts since 1864. It was this year that the first soldier’s burial appeared there. And now the bodies of veterans of all the wars that have occurred since that time rest in the ground. In addition, US presidents, chief justices of the Supreme Court, and astronauts are buried in the cemetery.

Kidron Valley

In Jerusalem, the Kidron Valley cemetery was founded approximately 3 thousand years ago. There are about a million graves on it. And all burial places have already been sold out for many years to come. And this despite the fact that land is very expensive. Surprisingly for a churchyard, the cemetery is very beautiful.

There are several churches on it, as well as unique tombstones. This place is sacred to representatives of three faiths - Jews, Muslims and Christians. These religions believe that God's judgment on humanity will take place in the Kidron Valley. The Messiah will descend from the top of Mount Maslenitsa, resurrect the dead and send sinners to hell and the righteous to heaven.

Green-Wood

Green-Wood Cemetery in New York occupies approximately 2 square kilometers. There are about 560 thousand burials in the cemetery. Statesmen and masons found their final refuge here. The masters of landscape design made the churchyard so beautiful that visitors to the graves begin to think: “There is nothing terrible in death.” In the 18th century, the Battle of American Independence was fought on the site of Green-Wood; a century later, a unique cemetery was founded here, which became a National Historic Monument.

Père Lachaise

The Père Lachaise cemetery is a real museum of tombstones, which has collected a huge number of works of art on one territory. Therefore, this French churchyard is the most visited in the world and the largest in Paris. More than 2 million tourists come to Père Lachaise every year.

The churchyard was opened in 1804 by Napoleon. Its territory covers about 48 hectares of land. More than 30,000 people are buried there. But tourists are attracted not only by tombstones, but by the abundance of graves of world famous people - political figures and artists, including Oscar Wilde, Francois Kelleran, Jim Morrison, Moliere, Isidora Duncan, Francois Arago, Balzac, Edith Piaf, Sarah Bernhardt. By the way, Russian Decembrists are also buried here.

Highgate

It's not common to say so, but Highgate is the best cemetery in London. It is located on the southern slope of the hill of the same name. The churchyard was founded in 1839, and it was one of seven that were built around London. The cemetery has a lot of Gothic crypts, tombstones and mausoleums. There are also catacombs in the Egyptian style. The graves of the rich and famous Englishmen are surrounded by a huge amount of greenery. And despite the stiffness of the British, there are also eccentric tombstones here. It is in this cemetery that Karl Marx is buried.
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In every settlement, even a small one, there is a cemetery - a specially designated place for burying the bodies of deceased people. Relatives of the deceased come to the graves to honor their memory. Over thousands of years, hundreds of necropolises have become amazing museums and acquired cultural and archaeological value. The largest cemeteries attract tourists who find these places amazing and original.

Wadi Us-Salam

This is the largest necropolis in the world. Its area is 6 km². It is located in Iraq near the city of Najaf. 5 million Muslims are buried here. The graves are set tightly. Each one accounts for a little more than a meter. Wadi Us-Salam is crossed by roads for cars and narrow pedestrian paths. There are original brick buildings and mausoleums.

The Iranian cemetery has been under the protection of UNESCO since 2010 and is considered a world heritage. Islamic prophets, thinkers, politicians of all ranks, and scientists are buried here. Citizens of Iraq and other Muslim countries dream of being here after death.

Burials in Wadi Us-Salam have not stopped for 1,400 years. There are family crypts topped with domes and underground crypts. Old graves are different from modern ones. They are elevated above the ground by 2-3 meters. The rounded tops of the elongated shape are visible from afar.

Calvary

An unusual cemetery is located in New York. It is the oldest in America. On Golgotha ​​there are 3 million graves with the remains of economic figures, politicians, actors, mafia leaders and ordinary citizens. The name of the necropolis was given in honor of the mountain on which the crucifixion took place.

The first funeral took place here in 1848. At this time, New York was overwhelmed by a cholera epidemic, and the question of burying several hundred dead people became acute. Calvary Cemetery is Roman Catholic and tax exempt. The graves here are of the standard American type:

• No fences;
• Slabs of the same size;
• The area is grassed;
• There are no images of the deceased;
• The graves are located in equal areas;
• Only outstanding people are buried in the crypts.

Corraumore

This cemetery is considered an ancient megalithic complex, covering an area of ​​4 km². The ancient necropolis is located in County Sligo in Ireland. Here archaeologists discovered 60 burials made before the Neolithic era.

According to scientists, the Corraumor cemetery was formed earlier than the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge. The tombs are dolmens. They are made of large stones of a special shape. The largest stone structure, 35 meters in diameter, in the cemetery is called Listogil.

The graves fenced with boulders are better preserved. During excavations, 30 kg of cremated human ashes were discovered on the territory of one surviving burial. Burials here are cremations; only in Listogil inhumation was carried out.

Before burial, the bodies were subjected to terrible processing - the flesh was separated from the bones and placed in the ground separately. Balls made of clay, stone, shell and parts of deer antlers were found in the graves. Some tombs were used more than once.

Kidron Valley

This cemetery is located in Jerusalem. It is 3,000 years old. During this time, a million people were buried here. The grave sites have already been purchased in advance, despite the decent cost of the land. The Kidron Valley is an amazing place. There are a dozen churches and unique tombstones on the territory.

This is a holy place for religious people - Muslims, Christians and Jews. Representatives of these religions believe that humanity will be judged in the Kidron Valley. The Messiah will descend from the top of the Mount of Oil and raise the dead, giving them their just deserts.

A large number of Christian monuments were built on the territory of the Kidron Valley. On Mount Olive there is the Church of the Assumption with the tomb of Mary. The Church of Our Father is located on the site of a cave in which a stone with the text of a prayer was discovered. Nearby stands the tomb of “Lazarus,” where Christ resurrected people pleasing to God.

The list of the largest cemeteries includes a necropolis located in Russia. He is listed in . This is the largest burial site on the European continent. The cemetery in Rostov occupies 400 hectares. 350,000 people are buried there. The first burial took place in 1972.

There is a crematorium on the territory of the Rostov cemetery, but it is rarely used. Relatives of the deceased bury their loved ones in a Christian way. The Holy Intercession Church is located here, where funeral services are held, the administration building, and the columbarium. There are companies offering services for the production of tombstones.

The northern Rostov necropolis is constantly expanding. Sometimes more than 50 burials are carried out per day. Buses run around the necropolis every half hour. The entrance to the cemetery and the first prestigious square meters are guarded. Constant video surveillance eliminates attempts at vandalism and destruction of monuments and tombstones that are of great value.

The traditional large cemetery in the United States is located in the suburbs of Washington. Previously, only military personnel who died in the Civil War of 1865 were buried here. Now burial is available to all people. The territory of the Arlion necropolis is 3 km². The third part is already occupied by graves. According to demographic estimates, it will be filled by 2025.

The US Congress introduced a rule prohibiting the burial of criminals sentenced to death and prisoners for life in the Arlin Cemetery. The graves here look the same. The exception is old burial places and places where prominent citizens are buried. According to the rules, it is allowed to put a symbol of the religion of the deceased on a marble slab.

This cemetery is visited by tourists. Despite the constant movement, it is quiet here. Sometimes gun shots are heard, which indicates a new burial of a military man. In the old part of the cemetery there are amazing monuments that are not familiar to modern Americans. The territory of the Arlion necropolis is hilly and winding. But this does not prevent burial in a straight line.

In the city of Najaf, located in the southern part of Iraq, 160 kilometers from Baghdad, there is the largest and oldest Muslim cemetery in the world - Wadi al-Salam (Valley of Peace), where Muslims continue to be buried continuously for more than 1,400 years. The area of ​​the cemetery itself is more than 600 hectares.

Many prophets, scientists and rulers are buried here. The graves of Prophet Adam (AS) and Prophet Nuh (AS) are also located in Najaf. In addition, the mausoleum of the fourth righteous caliph of the Muslim world, Imam Ali (RA), is located here.

In the Valley of Peace, in addition to scientists, religious and political figures, there are graves of ordinary Muslims from Afghanistan, India, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan and other countries.

Currently, more than five million Muslims from all over the world have found peace in Wadi al-Salam. The burials are located close to each other, so that there is about one square meter per person. Despite the density of burials, there are still roads, narrow passages between graves, and in some places you can even find fences.

Gravestones are mainly made of baked brick or gypsum. There are both modest and large family burials, which are decorated with domes; they are usually visible from afar. Such burials are more typical for graves dating back to the 30-40s of the 20th century.

In mid-2010, the Valley of Peace was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. And in 2012, the city of Najaf was chosen as the capital of Islamic culture according to ISESCO. Let us recall that every year three cities from Africa, Asia and the Middle East are chosen as capitals of Islamic culture. The nomination recognizes the cities' contemporary and historical significance in the fields of culture, architecture and art, as well as their contribution to Islam.