The only thing that is certain in life is death, and one day we will all have to think about what will happen to us when we leave. Most believe that the only choice is to be buried or cremated, but there are many bizarre places and ways to be buried.
Under water
The Neptune Memorial Reef is the largest man-made reef in the world, but few people know that it is also a water grave. Located off the coast of Key Biscayne in Florida, USA, the reef is an artistic interpretation of the Lost City of Atlantis.
Instead of fluttering the ashes of their loved ones over the ocean, Americans can now "rest" them at the Neptune Memorial Reef, where the ashes are mixed with cement created for underwater use, which is then added to the reef.
Inside the restaurant
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The people who had booked a burial site at a cemetery in Ahmedabad in western India did not know that one day they would be lying in the middle of a busy fast food restaurant. The owner of the establishment, Krishnan Cutti, bought the land where his diner was to be built, after which he discovered that it was a cemetery.
Instead of digging up graves, the owner decided to keep the coffins and place tables around them.
No one knows for sure who the graves belong to, although locals claim they contain the remains of followers of a 16th-century Sufi saint whose grave is nearby. Krishnan Kutti believes that a kind of cemetery inside the restaurant brings him good luck.
Hanging coffins of Sagada
If you want to hang forever after death, then a unique custom practiced in the Sagada region of the northern Philippines is for you.
The advantage of a hanging coffin is that the body of the deceased is closer to heaven, and they can better watch their family from above. In addition, the corpses are buried in a fetal position, since the locals believe that a person should leave the world just as he came into it.
In a work of art
The San Cataldo Cemetery in Modena, Italy, is shaped like a bright orange cube filled with square windows into which the dead must be "stowed".
The discreet interior for human remains echoes the outer façade. The windows illuminate the interior space with a red shimmer that is due to the exterior plaster of paris in the same shade.
In a tourist attraction
Monks in Palermo, Sicily have used the cool climate in the limestone corridors below the city to preserve the bodies of the dead since the 16th century.
The eerie Capuchin catacombs currently contain over 8,000 mummified bodies, the largest "collection" in the world. Available to the public, the bodies are so well preserved that even the oldest, dating from 1599, still have skin and hair.
On the airport runway
If you look through your plane's window while taking off or landing at the Savannah, Georgia airport, you will see two slanting concrete rectangles on the runway.
Richard and Catherine Dotson were buried on the family farm. 60 years later, the city authorities wanted to build an airport there and moved the graves of all Dotson family members except Richard and Catherine.
Under the doll house
A cemetery near St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Eklutna, Alaska, shows that cemeteries can be interesting places too.
The cemetery itself is filled with hundreds of colorfully painted dollhouse-sized tombs - a practice that combines Russian Orthodox tradition and Alaska Native funeral rites.
Inside the trunk of a tree
The people of the Toraja Indians "bury" their dead children in the trunks of living trees so that they can be absorbed by nature.
When tragedy takes the life of a young child, the Toraja gouges holes in huge tree trunks, then wraps the deceased child in cloth and then places them inside the tree. The hole is then covered with palm fiber, and as the tree grows over time, it is believed that the body is absorbed by nature.
Earlier it was reported that in Britain a woman wants to make a bag from her own skin.