Our Top-10 List: Our Favourite Tombs, cemeteries and other deathly places from around the world
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This list is our own personal top-ten tombs and similar places we have visited around the world, based on what we have seen and experienced in our travels.
1. Taj Mahal, India
Not a lot of people know this, but the Taj Mahal, one of the greatest buildings in the world, is actually a mausoleum that houses the tombs of Mughal emperor Shah Jahān and his wife Mumtaz Mahal. It is more impressive in real life as the photos.
2. Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt
It is not easy to reach the Valley of the Kings in the Egyptian desert, and at first glance it is not that impressive. It is only when you descend into the burial chambers of the pharaohs that its true beauty is revealed. Tutankhamun’s tomb is famously here, though his sarcophagus is at the Cairo Museum.
3. S21, Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
It is a distressing but important museum to visit, to honor the Cambodians killed by the Khmer Rouge. It is the building where many prisoners were tortured and killed.
4. Burning Ghats, Varanasi, India
On the banks of the Ganges River in Varanasi, locals are cremated and the remains placed in the holy river. We saw some of these ceremonies, but out of respect we did not take any photos.
5. Great Pyramids in Giza, Cairo, Egypt
We took a horse ride around the Great Pyramids in Giza, Cairo, Egypt, a great way to experience this area.
6. Mummy Museum, Mexico
The Mummies of Guanajuato are naturally mummified bodies in a museum
7. Auschwitz concentration camp, Poland
The Auschwitz concentration camp was a a concentration operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War 2
8. Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France
Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris France where many famous people are interred. It is a massive old cemetery including the headstones of Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison.
9. New Orleans Cemetery, USA
People buried above the ground in the New Orleans Cemetery. Burial plots are shallow in New Orleans because the water table is very high
10. Catacombs, Paris
The Catacombs of Paris are underground ossuaries in Paris, France
Here are places we have visited that did not make the top-10 list:
- The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Ba Dinh Square, Hanoi
- Isola di San Michele (also known as the Island of the Dead), Venice, Italy
- Church of bones in Rome (The Capuchin Crypt below the Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini)
- Westminster Abbey: tombs of many famous people
- Vatican Grottoes – the papal tombs beneath St. Peter’s Basilica
And place we would like to visit that would be in the running to make the top-10:
- Terracotta army, China