Cementerio General, Santiago de Chile

Cementerio General, Santiago de Chile - darkometer rating : 5 - As the name 'general cemetery' implies, this is Santiago de Chile 's main cemetery, a large expanse of over 200 acres to the north of the city centre. Apart from its size (and the number of dead buried here – ca. 2 million!) it is primarily of interest to dark tourists for a few individual graves, not least that of Allende and other prominent victims of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile , but also a patch of nameless ones. > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos What there is to see: If you enter the cemetery from the Recoleta entrance (near the metro station) the first significant point of interest you will reach is the main memorial to the victims of the dictatorship era 1973 to 1990 (it was built in 1994). Its centrepiece is a huge wall of names. In the middle, set apart from the other names, a single name stands out: " Salvador Allende Gossens , Presidente de la Republica". The rest of the wall is divided into two somewhat asymmetrical portions. To the left are the 1000 names of the "disappeared", also listing the date on which each of them was last seen. To the right the even larger number of names (3000) of those known to have been executed – and age and date of the execution are given for each one as well. Note in particular those underage ones: teenagers, children even! Below the towering wall of names is a stone garden where relatives of the disappeared/executed place little memento mori and photos for individual victims. The oval square in front of the wall of names is flanked by four rather modern head sculptures, and on either side of the wall of names are two more walls with urn niches representing each of the disappeared.