When it comes to places of rest, most of us only pay a brief visit to a cemetery when we must, then hurry away. Yet the world hides a handful of truly bizarre burial grounds that deserve a closer look. In this roundup of 10 strange cemeteries, we’ll uncover the stories, customs and oddities that make each site unforgettable.
Why These 10 Strange Cemeteries Captivate the Curious
From vivid folk art to cliff‑side coffins, each location offers a glimpse into how different cultures honor—and sometimes joke about—their departed.
10 Merry Cemetery
The tiny village of Săpânța in northern Romania, home to roughly three thousand souls, is anchored by the Church of the Assumption. Life there is modest, but the community ensures that every resident receives a flamboyant final tableau.
Since the mid‑1930s, locals have been laid to rest in what is known as the Merry Cemetery. Each grave boasts a hand‑carved, brightly painted headstone, and a personalized poem that celebrates the deceased’s life in a whimsically naïve style.
If you can read Romanian, you’ll discover verses written from the dead person’s point of view. Some are cheeky—like Ioan Toaderu’s confession about enjoying a bar seat beside another man’s wife—while others are raw, such as a three‑year‑old’s fiery rebuke to the taxi driver that ran her over.
Even without language skills, the kaleidoscopic carvings are a visual feast, sometimes depicting the manner of death in a darkly comic fashion.
9 The Hanging Cemetery
High in the Philippine mountains of Sagada, families have for centuries preferred to “hang” their dead rather than bury them. The process begins with a “death chair” placed inside the home, facing the front door so the departed can greet visitors.
The body is wrapped in rattan leaves and smoked to preserve it and eliminate odors. After several days, the corpse is positioned fetal‑style—legs tucked under the chin—sometimes requiring broken limbs. Fresh leaves and a blanket cover the body before mourners carry it to the cliffside burial ground.
At the cemetery, a narrow coffin (about one metre wide) is nailed to the rock face. The higher the placement, the higher the individual’s status in life. The tradition is reserved for elders; younger deaths are considered unlucky.
During the transport, it is considered fortunate if bodily fluids seep through the leaves and drip onto the pallbearers, a sign of good luck.
8 The Underwater Cemetery
Neptune Memorial Reef, situated roughly five kilometres off Florida’s coast, gives new meaning to the phrase “sleep with the fishes.”
This man‑made reef sits in about twelve metres of water and features classical statues that evoke an Atlantean ambience, making it a diver’s paradise.
Beyond its aesthetic appeal, the reef is designed to receive cremated remains, allowing the departed to become part of the marine ecosystem and help feed the coral, encouraging reef growth.
7 Cross Bones
Southwark, London—home to Shakespeare’s Globe—was once a notorious quarter of taverns and brothels. In the 12th century, the Bishop of Winchester licensed the city’s prostitutes, nicknamed “Winchester Geese,” and imposed strict regulations.
Although the bishop taxed the women, he refused to allow them burial in consecrated ground. Instead, a parcel of unconsecrated land—officially the Single Woman’s Churchyard, colloquially called Cross Bones—was set aside for their interment.
By the 17th century, the site also became a pauper’s graveyard, and bodies were often stolen by body snatchers. A 1992 Museum of London excavation revealed tightly packed remains, with over half belonging to children under five.
The cemetery stands today as a haunting reminder of the city’s shadowy past.
6 Napoleon’s Cemetery
San Michele Island, nestled in the Venetian Lagoon, houses a hidden cemetery surrounded by high walls yet open to visitors. Monks inhabited the island from the 15th century, leaving behind a domed monastery and a striking angel statue at the entrance.
When Napoleon seized Venice, he declared that the city’s flood‑prone terrain made burial there unsanitary. Consequently, San Michele became the official necropolis for Venetians, offering splendid views between Venice and Murano.
Since the mid‑1990s, overcrowding has forced the cemetery to issue ten‑ or twenty‑year leases for remains, after which the bones are removed to accommodate new interments.
5 The Cemetery Of 200,000 (And 1)
Okunoin Cemetery in Japan stretches across a sprawling forest and contains nearly a quarter of a million graves, yet its focus is a single figure: Kobo Daishi, founder of Shingon Buddhism.
Kobo Daishi is believed to sit in eternal meditation, awaiting the arrival of the future Buddha. Pilgrims must bow before crossing the bridge that leads into the cemetery, where 200,000 tombstones line the path toward his mausoleum.
The Hall of Lamps, adjacent to the mausoleum, displays ten thousand perpetually lit lanterns and fifty thousand tiny statues of the saint. Offerings can be left in the aptly named Offering Hall, though the saint likely has enough statues to keep him busy.
4 Dracula’s Cemetery
St Mary’s Church in Whitby, erected in 1110, shelters a graveyard that inspired Bram Stoker’s iconic novel, Dracula. In the story, the vampire arrives at Whitby, leaping from his doomed ship into an abandoned crypt that mirrors the church’s atmosphere.
Stoker stayed in Whitby while writing, drawn to the gothic ambience of the cliff‑side town and its ancient churchyard.
Coastal erosion has since exposed several corpses as the cliffs recede, though none have the elongated fangs of fiction. Ongoing preservation work aims to keep the historic burial ground from slipping into the sea.
3 The Cemetery Of Shame
The Oise‑Aisne American Cemetery in France commemorates over six thousand World War I soldiers across four marked plots (A‑D). A hidden fifth section, Plot E, holds ninety‑six unmarked graves of American servicemen who were dishonorably discharged and executed for wartime crimes.
These men were alleged to have murdered twenty‑six fellow soldiers and taken part in rapes or murders of seventy‑one civilians. The graves are numbered only, face away from the honored plots, and the American flag is not permitted to fly over this area.
The most famous occupant of Plot E was Private Eddie Slovik, the only American executed for desertion since the Civil War. His remains were later moved in 1987 and reburied beside his wife after a presidential pardon.
2 The Cemetery Of A Million Mummies
Archaeologists unearthed an Egyptian burial ground whose name translates oddly as “The Way of the Water Buffalo.” Within its boundaries lie a staggering one million mummified bodies.
The site, used between the 1st and 7th centuries, served low‑status citizens during Roman rule. Most were interred without coffins or grave goods, offering little in the way of treasure for modern explorers.
Scientists have uncovered extraordinary specimens: a 213‑centimetre‑tall individual forced to fold in half to fit the grave, as well as clusters of blond and red‑haired mummies, suggesting possible family or hair‑color based burial practices.
1 The Plague Cemetery
In 1665, a tailor in the English village of Eyam ordered a damp bale of cloth from London. When he tried to dry it over a fire, the fleas hidden in the fabric unleashed bubonic plague throughout the community.
The village rector, fearing the disease would spread to neighboring towns, imposed a strict quarantine. He promised to stay with his parishioners, providing care while they endured the death of 42 villagers, including the tailor. Residents like Elizabeth Hancock dug graves themselves, as no one else dared approach her.
One survivor, Marshall Howe, who had contracted the disease early, volunteered to tend the dead, even pilfering belongings as payment. Tragically, his wife and two‑year‑old son later succumbed, and Howe buried them as well. By November 1666, half the population had perished, but the epidemic faded, and the graves remain visible in Eyam’s churchyard today.