Cities of the Dead

In recent years, some of New Orleans’ best-known cemeteries have become overcrowded — not with the dead, but the living. St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, for example, draws hundreds of thousands of visitors annually on large group tours.

But you don’t have to join the herd. New Orleans’ seldom-seen cemeteries — there are 33 historic burial places around the city! — provide a different experience, from the humble in-ground paupers’ graves at Holt Cemetery to the marble mansions of the dead in posh Metairie Cemetery. There is endless variety in the New Orleans way of death and burial. And so many stories to tell, as the tombs and those inside reveal their secret histories.

This half-day exploration by car and on foot offers a grand tour of "America's Necropolis" with its unique burial customs, rich and varied architectural expressions, and fascinating stories from beyond the grave.