Dead Man Blues: "There’s a bunch of gross stuff, besides human bodies, hiding under graveyards."

Honestly, I just needed an excuse to listen to this Jelly Roll Morton song.

Here Lies E. Coli, by Sarah Laskow (Atlas Obsucra)

There’s a bunch of gross stuff, besides human bodies, hiding under graveyards.

For millennia, groups of people have set aside special places to inter their dead, but as the world’s population has grown, so have the problems with concentrating dead bodies in this way. “Cemeteries can be regarded as special kinds of landfills,” the World Health Organization wrote in a 1998 report, and, like any landfill, they come with pollution risks. There have been few comprehensive studies of their environmental hazards, but in some cases—a cemetery that keeps flooding, for instance—the dangers of contamination are clear. With cemeteries sometimes converted into parks and playgrounds, or surrounded by dense development, environmental scientists are increasingly trying to understand the real dangers hidden in cemetery grounds.

Unlock your inner tapophile with "tomb tourism."

New Albany's Fairview Cemetery never disappoints.

While I appreciate the tone of this commentary, it remains that cemeteries are invaluable for a history buff. They reveal so much about local culture. Perhaps that's why I've been to so many during the course of my travels.

And yes, I made three purposeful trips just to commune with Jim Morrison at Père Lachaise. Photos may follow someday as my old slides are digitalized. Until then, note only that "tapophile" implies something very different to me.

Tomb tourism is an old hobby in brighter clothes, by Barbara Ellen (The Guardian)

Hanging out in cemeteries has always appealed to those with a taste for the macabre

It seems that there is a rise in tombstone tourism. This is where people visit places with the express intention of looking around graveyards. Dubbed tapophiles, they are sometimes interested in a particular site because famous people are buried there, such as Karl Marx in Highgate cemetery or Oscar Wilde in the Père Lachaise in Paris.

At other times, the tapophiles just wish to wander among the tombstones, enjoying the sombre atmosphere. There are even special tours to ensure you don’t miss out on a particularly rocking cemetery ...