Cities of the Dead!!

New Orleans, in the USA, is a unique city beside the sea and lying below the sea level. There are many tourist attractions there, one of which is its cemeteries. I travelled to New Orleans in early February of this year and the story of this burial grounds are just interesting. The cemeteries are the large burial grounds with beautiful tombs. Each of the tombs has unique designs. Worth seeing. I never saw a huge burial ground with so beautiful tombs, got awestruck that a heaven can exist on earth! Since the city is on swamps and lies below sea level, it was a huge problem to bury dead bodies. The coffins after some days of the burial used to float up, thus disappointing the sentiments of the people who are near and dear of the deceased.

Hence the solutions were found out. Graves were kept above ground. Vaults were made on the walls of the cemeteries. The rich families built a small house like structures keeping the gates or doors and stairs to go up to the vaults inside. The vaults were stacked one upon another. The poorer families could not afford multiple vaults, so they used the same vault for the deceased if there was a time gap of two years between the deaths. The tombs of different families are placed side by side, and each of the tomb looks like a different house. Cute, small houses standing in a row. There are several rows and the burial ground really looks like a city. I was stunned literally, a heck of time I spent on understanding the concept. From far, the cemetery looks like a heavenly place. Nobody knows how many stories are buried inside!! The Cities of the Dead-New Orleans surprised me. I took rounds of one such City of the Dead, Curious to know each of the stories. All the names of the buried family members were written on every tomb, mostly with the golden colour. Have I not seen the cemetery in New Orleans, I would not have believed that the dead can be respected in such a manner!! Experience and understanding of humanity for the lifetime. I thank God for giving me the opportunity of visiting the place!!

Few photographs captured by me.