Strangest Tombs In The World

From a sinister window you should never look down into to a coffin that gets longer every year, and the terrifying reason one man insisted on being buried inside a 20-foot boulder. Let's find out the truth behind all of this, alongside creepy entombments with even creepier backstories, and much more, as we explore some of the strangest tombs in the world.

The Grave Of Inez Clarke

Who doesn’t love a good mystery? Well, head down to Graceland Cemetery in Chicago and you’ll find one of the strangest, most perplexing mysteries in the whole of the United States, and it all revolves around this memorial of a 6-year-old girl.

So, what’s the deal? Supposedly the girl was the daughter of a well-off family, but while they were out on a picnic one day in 1880 she was tragically struck by lightning. In grief, her parents commissioned a Sicilian sculptor to make the life-sized statue in her memory and bury her beneath it. Some time later, they moved away.

Then, one stormy night the cemetery watchman was doing his rounds when he noticed the glass case the statue was kept in was empty. Confused, he stepped closer, and got the fright of his life! A little girl dressed in period clothing shot out from behind a headstone and ran off through the cemetery. The nightwatchman fled in terror, vowing never to return.

Yet, the following morning, the statue was back in its normal place. According to legend, it disappears every time there’s a storm. But is any of it actually true? The inscription below the statue names the girl simply as “Inez”, and says she’s the daughter of John and Mary Clarke. There’s just one problem: there’s no record that Inez Clarke ever existed. Even stranger, the cemetery doesn’t have anyone by the name of Inez listed as buried there at all!

Instead, the plot the statue resides in is supposedly occupied by some guy named Amos Briggs. In an effort to find sense in this, some have claimed that the girl was never actually real, and that the statue was just a marketing stunt by sculptor Andrew Gagel, whose name is engraved on it. Could be something to it, but that doesn’t explain where ‘Inez’ came from or who John and Mary Clarke are. Were the names just plucked from thin air? Well, no. At least, not the parents’ names.

Documents from 30 years after Inez was supposedly buried prove there was in fact a Mary and John Clarke, and they did have a daughter. Only, she was still alive back in 1880. Why does everything have to be so confusing? Fear not, after some serious sleuthing we’ve got the answer to this age-old mystery.

Mary and John did have a daughter together who was alive in 1880. But Mary had another daughter from a previous marriage too, a daughter called Inez. It was this daughter that sadly passed away, though records show it was from the bacterial infection, diphtheria, not a lightning strike as the legend clearly dramatized.

Regardless, her name was never Inez Clarke, explaining why there are no records of her, it was Inez Briggs, her mother’s maiden name. And remember the guy that’s supposedly buried on the plot, Amos Briggs? Someone must’ve misheard Inez as Amos and put down the wrong name on the cemetery record! It turns out the real monster behind this horror story was poor documentation.

Merry Cemetery

Have you ever been walking through a cemetery and thought, “if only this looked more like the walls of a 4th-grade classroom?” If so, congratulations, you’re a freak! But you’re also in luck. This next bizarre cemetery in Săpânța, Romania is nicknamed the “Merry Cemetery”.

The weirdly colorful graveyard is famous for its unique murals decorating over 800 crosses, each depicting some personal aspect of the deceased’s life. Some show their job, others hobbies, and the more morbid ones even show how they met their end! All with a bright splash of paint of course. It’s like you’re flipping through the world’s most depressing children’s book.

So what’s the story? Well, the unique idea was the brainchild of local, Stan Ioan Pătraş, who began carving crosses for the local cemetery in 1922, when he was just 14. As time passed, Stan’s hobby grew, and he started adding humorous poems and artwork to the headstones too. By 1935, he’d taken to walking through town, taking notes about his neighbors' lives so that when their time came he could tell their stories properly.

Not without their consent, mind! People clearly took a shine to Stan’s eclectic art style and over time it became synonymous with Săpânța. He even started incorporating hidden meanings within the murals. Carvings that featured the colour green were meant to symbolise life, red represented passion, and black death. This alongside the poems mean the graves tell a surprising amount about the person beneath them.

One particularly spicy poem reads, “Ioan Toaderu loved horses. One more thing he loved very much. To sit at a table in a bar. Next to someone else’s wife.” Imagine getting permanently called out right above your grave. Stan continued working on headstones until eventually it was his turn for one in 1977. But who did Stan’s? His two apprentices of course! And they’ve carried his work on ever since. It’s enough to bring a tear to your eye.

Mortsafes

If you take a trip to the UK and wander through any of its many cemeteries, chances are you’ll encounter a strange sight: elevated cages covering old graves. Creepy, right? But what are they for? Keeping zombies underground? Staving off vampires? Not quite, though the truth is no less macabre.

The cages are indeed meant to keep the buried bodies within, but not for fear of the undead. No, people were more scared of grave robbers. Back in the 18th century, grave robbery had become a full-blown epidemic across the UK.

Back then, medical schools used real cadavers to practice with and show students, but they were constantly in short supply. In this vacuum, a black market formed where schools sought professionals who could “procure” fresh subjects. These professionals were called Resurrectionists, and they made their money by unearthing freshly dug graves, stealing the bodies, and selling them for a profit.

While there were technically no laws against body snatching at that time, you can imagine families got pretty angry if they discovered someone had defiled their loved ones' tomb and stolen their remains. People needed a solution. And thus, we have the Mortsafe.

These cages could be bought by families to cover graves and were often made with thick slabs of stone on top to prevent Resurrectionists from lifting them. More complicated models included multiple locks, interlocking bars, and metal rods secured in the ground.

The goal was to prevent wannabe thieves long enough for the body to decay and become worthless. After a few days in the ground, the mortsafes succeeded in this regard. However, the tougher it was for a Resurrectionist to remove the mortsafe, the harder it’d be for anyone else, which is why you can still find them over graves today. With the golden age of grave robbing behind us, however, these weird cages are now just relics of a bygone era. Which might come in handy if the zombie apocalypse ever does come.

The Growing Tomb Of Daniel At Samarkand

Some people dream of getting a growth spurt later in life. But what if you got one after your life was already over? In Samarkand, Uzbekistan, there’s an almost 60-foot-long sarcophagus that supposedly holds the remains of the Bible’s Saint Daniel.

Daniel is a revered figure in the Muslim, Jewish and Christian faiths, and many places across Iran, Iraq and Uzbekistan claim to house his final remains. None however have taken creative liberties like this. So why is it so long?

Reportedly, after his death Daniel’s body continued to grow just shy of 2 inches a day. So, to accommodate this added stature, they continuously built upon the sarcophagus to the point it now lies a gargantuan 60 feet long. The only thing is, Daniel supposedly died some 2,500 years ago. So if he actually is growing 2 inches a year, he’d be well over 400 feet tall by now, making his current resting place quite a snug fit.

More likely, the grave was built this way to make it more difficult for potential grave robbers to steal what remains, if any, lie inside. You wouldn’t know where to start! Either that or Daniel is incredibly flexible, even post rigor mortis.

The Boulder Tomb Of Senator William Jeffreys

We all have at least one irrational fear. For me, it’s pineapples. But in 1845, William Jeffreys had a fear so great that he made his father promise to posthumously entomb him in a 20-foot boulder. So, what was he so afraid of?

To understand, you first have to know who William Jeffreys was. At just 28 years old, he was elected to the North Carolina Senate and seemingly had a bright future ahead of him. But the very next year his health took a sudden turn and he was diagnosed with bilious fever, or malaria as it’s known today.

Despite being expected to make a full recovery, his condition only got worse, and William started suffering from extreme hallucinations. In this state, and knowing his time was coming soon, he developed an intense fear of being eaten by worms. At first nobody took him seriously, but as his condition deteriorated his father eventually agreed to bury him inside a rock to avoid the wiggly man-eaters.

After William’s passing his father found a suitably huge rock and hired a mason to carve out a person-sized hole at the top. Unfortunately, it was no quick job. After a whole year, it was finally finished, but surely by now William’s body had succumbed to decay anyway?

Well, you’d think so. But according to legend, the body was put into a barrel full of brandy and dropped in a nearby river to preserve it until the rock tomb was ready. If all this wasn’t weird enough, allegedly the family drank the brandy after his body was relocated. Nothing like a sip of fermented human to put some hair on your chest.

William’s unconventional tomb was a local tourist stop for some time, but after vandals shattered the inscription slab, all road signs to the boulder were removed. So next time you’re camping out in North Carolina, be careful, you don’t want to accidentally take a whiz on Senator William Jeffreys’ final resting place.

The Russian Gangster Cemetery

The 90s were a turbulent time in Russia, with the fall of the Soviet Union bringing a steep rise in organized crime. But being a career criminal doesn’t usually come with a retirement plan. So, why not leave a wildly excessive headstone to do the talking?

In certain Russian cemeteries, you’ll find a wide range of detailed headstones featuring shady characters in baggy suits wearing expensive jewelry. For the upper crust of Russian criminals, however, these graves are pathetic. Take Vyacheslav Ivankov, a famed Mob Boss who ran extortion rings in Russia and the US until he was assassinated in 2009. If you were to walk by his grave, you might think he was some world leader instead of one of Russia’s most notorious gangsters.

Even more impressive is a monument in Novosibirsk’s Kleshchikhinsky cemetery, in memory of businessman and alleged mob collaborator Boris Chubarov. With the wind-swept tie and life-sized Mercedes in the background, he looks like he’s walking off the set of some action movie. Even stranger, Boris didn’t even own a Mercedes, he just liked them!

Strange Père-Lachaise Graves

Imagine you’re strolling through the beautiful Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris when you come across the morbid headstone below.

The man depicted holding the disembodied head is Fernand Arbelot, director of the Westminster Foreign Bank, who passed away in 1942. The head is thought to be his wife, Henriette Marie Louise Gicquel. Apparently, he wished nothing more than to gaze upon her face for all eternity. Which is sweet, although the sculptor might’ve taken him a bit too literally.

Another popular Père-Lachais tomb has grabbed people’s attention, although this one is because of a very different appendage. In the 19th century, Victor Noir was a journalist for a popular French newspaper, but the paper had gotten in trouble with Prince Pier Bonaparte, great-nephew to the famed military leader Napolean Bonaparte.

Back then disputes were sometimes settled with dangerous duels, so Victor was sent to meet Bonaparte to arrange the time and place. However, there was an altercation, and Bonaparte pulled out his gun, putting a permanent end to Victor before the duel could even begin! In commemoration, a memorial was made depicting the journalist at the moment of his passing.

Only, the statue became famous for something entirely irrelevant: the bulge. The strange addition led to the birth of an even stranger belief, that if a woman kisses Victor’s lips, rubs his bulge, and drops a flower on his hat she’ll gain enhanced fertility. As you can see by how much Victor’s decency has been worn away, this ritual has proven very popular.

The Mega Gravestone Of Charlie McDonagh

People deal with grief in different ways. For the McDonagh family in Ireland, their grief has taken the shape of maybe the most extravagant tomb ever. In 2023, 21-year-old Charlie McDonagh’s life was cut tragically short by terminal cancer. In mourning, Charlie’s family and hundreds of relatives raised roughly $165,000 to build a headstone to rival all others.

The towering 15-foot memorial takes up 3 plots in the cemetery and is adorned with multiple Donegal County flags, sword-wielding angels, and even what looks like some kind of rendition of the Last Supper. There’re also multiple statues of Charlie and stone replicas of his car, phone, sunglasses, Rolex and even his favorite drink. Talk about attention to detail! But why so incredibly lavish?

The McDonaghs are part of the Irish Traveler community, a nomadic ethnic minority native to Ireland with their own unique languages, communities and traditions. Travelers are very in tune with death, and see the size of a loved one’s headstone as indicative of the love and respect they had for them. Symbols like angels are often used so the deceased is effectively guided through the afterlife, while their hobbies and interests are also honored so the living can retain a stronger connection with them.

However, not everyone has taken to this behemoth of a headstone. While Charlie’s family got the plot fair and square, locals have complained about the design, calling it tacky and wrongfully arguing it breaks the cemetery's height regulations. The McDonaghs insist it’s their culture and right to mourn their child however they see fit.

“Jesus is my Swingset” Child Grave

Over in Cave Hill Cemetery, Kentucky, under the shade of an ancient wingnut tree you’ll find a unique memorial for 3-year-old Sami McDonald. It might seem odd at first, but really it’s a beautiful testament to a family that lost that which was dearest to them. The headstone depicts Sami as she was on May 2nd 2006, swinging carefree in the park. Later that same day, the girl would tragically drown. That’s heartbreaking.

Determined to make something good of the tragedy, her parents commissioned the grave with help from Maine sculptor Tom White and monument architect Terry Joy. As a religious family, they hoped it would stop and make people think not just about life, but about Jesus and his role after life.

Whether you’re a believer or not, it’s impossible to deny how touching it is. The stone even features three handprints, one is Sami’s, and the others are her two siblings, as well as a place to leave pebbles and other things the girl loved to collect.

Timothy Clark Smith's Unique Grave With A Window

Take a walk through Evergreen Cemetery in Vermont, US, and you might stumble across a bizarre sight. A square stone slab in the grass, with what appears to be a window in it.

Back in 1893, Doctor Timothy Smith requested the window to be installed in his grave because of a deep-rooted fear he had, being accidentally buried alive. While a ridiculous concept today, back in the 1800s, such things were known to happen. Desperate to ensure such a terrible fate didn’t befall him, Smith had a few safeguards built.

A breathing tube was added, since lost to time, and a bell was placed in his hand to signal for help if he were to wake up. But the greatest addition was a six-foot shaft dug from the surface to his coffin, with a glass window installed. From there, anyone could look directly down upon Smith’s decaying face. Perhaps thankfully, years of weather damage, condensation, and plant growth have made it hard to make anything out nowadays.

India's Lucky Restaurant With Graveyard Seats

Imagine you’re building your new restaurant only to discover it’s on top of an old graveyard. What do you do? Well, if you’re the owner of the ironically named Lucky Restaurant in Ahmedabad, India, you turn your bad luck into the strangest gimmick in restaurant history.

When Krishnan Kutti first checked out the plot of land and realized it was a cemetery, he knew he had to buy it. Rather than move the graves or build on top of them though, he built his restaurant around them, effectively turning them into a tourist attraction. If you go there, you can enjoy a meal right next to a load of people who can never enjoy one again.

You can dine with dead saints at this restaurant in Ahmedabad. #OMGIndia S02E05 Story 3 by HISTORY TV18

Krishnan argues eating beside the dead is actually good luck, and it certainly has been for him! Despite the macabre nature of the place, it pulls in plenty of curious customers a day. As to who the graves actually belong to, it’s hard to say. The current theory is that they’re Muslim followers of a 16th century saint. Whoever they are, hopefully they like the smell of food

Pyramid Jizo

Japan’s Wakayama prefecture hosts one of the country’s most sacred sites, Mount Kōya, a beautiful, isolated peak in the Kii mountain range. Monk Kobo Daishi, founder of the Shingon sect of Japanese Buddhism, set his dojo up here over 1,200 years ago and eventually made it his resting place.

Over 200,000 Buddhist monks lie here, but head right to the very back of the burial grounds and you’ll find a memorial stranger and more mysterious than any other. This imposing pyramid of tiny statues dominates the scenery around it. What is it for? And why are some of the statues wearing bibs?

The ones at the bottom aren’t just statues, they’re called Jizo, named after Jizo Bosatsu, the Buddhist patron deity of children and travelers. Parents who’ve lost children will often pray to Jizo for their spirits’ well-being, and travelers might pray for protection before embarking on a journey. As for the bibs? In Japanese culture, red is associated with defending against evil. So, visitors put red hats or bibs on Jizo to protect themselves or the spirits of those who’ve passed on from danger.

The nondescript monuments that comprise the rest of the pyramid are called muenbotoke, and they represent all the people who passed on without any earthly connections. So, people without children, unidentified bodies, etcetera. Put simply, this pyramid is a tribute to all those who’ve been lost and forgotten. Kind of sad, kind of beautiful.

The Knight's Tombstone

Virginia, the birthplace of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Mountain Dew. But did you know it’s also the location of the USA’s oldest tombstone? A 5-and-a-half foot long black limestone tablet was encased in cement at the entrance of a 400-year-old church in Jamestown, and only properly excavated in 2018.

The behemoth of a tombstone was originally adorned with brass inlays, but although they were looted long ago, we can tell they depicted a shield, a scroll, and a man in armor. However, a knight in Virginia? Weren’t they a European thing? Confused archeologists sifted through dusty records to try and make sense of the mystery and eventually discovered the tomb belongs to one Sir George Yeardley. So, who was he?

Born in England in 1588 to a family of middling wealth, George served as a soldier from a young age, and at 21, while fighting in the Netherlands, joined a large fleet headed for Virginia. After several years of gold hunting and fighting with the Powhatan natives, he returned to England in 1616.

He wasn’t gone for long though, because just two years later he was appointed Lord Governor of Virginia. To boost his social standing, he was knighted by King James before being sent off to save Virginia from political and financial difficulty.

As Lord Governor, he established an English-inspired legal system, administered the distribution of settler lands and oversaw the construction of the first representative government in America. Less flatteringly, he also oversaw the arrival of the first African Slaves in Virginia before eventually passing in 1627 to be buried beside the church. Not exactly the knight in shining armor you were hoping for, but you can’t deny his life was colorful.

City Of The Dead

Deep in Russia’s Caucus mountains far from where locals dare tread, there’s a medieval necropolis that supposedly houses the souls of some 10,000 deceased. This is the City of the Dead, a creepy collection of 99 windowed crypts that have been here since at least the 13th century.

Mysteriously, nobody knows who built them or why. Clearly they’re a cemetery of some kind, but why lay it out like a village? Some say it helped conserve space, others that they were made in the Indo-Iranian tradition of burying the dead above ground to respect the land. But without any records, it’s impossible to say for sure.

However they were built, they do their job well. Because of their position they’re blown by winds in the river valley and kept dry, mummifying the bodies naturally and slowing down decomposition. Later, during the 17th and 18th centuries, plague epidemics wreaked havoc across the region, forcing infected people to isolate themselves in the crypts until the illness finally took them.

Today, brave tourists can peer through the windows and supposedly see bodies that are so well preserved they still have flesh on the bones. Locals disapprove of this, warning that anyone who visits the City of the Dead risks never returning.

Tau Tau Funerary Sculptures

If you’re like me, then nothing scares you more than puppets. But it seems others have a more enlightened perspective on these humanoid horrors. On the south side of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, the people of Toraja commemorate someone’s passing by making a 3-foot-tall wooden likeness of them called a Tau Tau. Carved from the wood of a Jackfruit tree, the somewhat eerie looking models can be highly detailed, and stand as visible representations of the deceased’s soul.

Indeed, during the funeral, the person’s soul is said to actually inhabit the Tau Tau and is carried around to inspect the event. If their soul is happy with the funeral, their spirit will move to the Land of the Souls, but if they’re not, they remain as angry ghosts. Therefore it’s crucial that both the Tau Tau itself is cared for and the funeral is proper.

Once the seven-day event is over, the Tau Tau is brought up to a carved tomb on the face of a cliff and placed inside along other members of the tribe. The overall effect might appear kind of menacing, but in reality it’s actually quite touching.

If you were amazed at these strange tombs, you might want to read about what happens when you die. Thanks for reading!