Highgate cemetery, London

Highgate Cemetery - darkometer rating : 3 - A celebrated and extremely atmospheric Victorian cemetery in north London , Great Britain . It's known mainly for two things: a) it's the final resting place of Karl Marx (plus a number of other celebrities), and b) its western part in particular is wonderfully enchanting, semi-overgrown and full of fabulous sepulcral architeture and "Gothic" graves. In that latter respect it is indeed one of the most superb cemeteries that I know of!! > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > photos More background info: As with other celebrated cemeteries (cf. Pere Lachaise or Vienna ’s Central Cemetery ), Highgate Cemetery owes its existence to the fact that with the beginning of the 19th century, as urbanization took off alongside the Industrial Revolution , the older inner-city cemeteries became overcrowded and unsanitary . Up to then, people were usually buried in their local church graveyards. But as graves were increasingly stacked high (or deep) and ever shallower, they started posing health hazards as well as raising ethical questions. A cholera outbreak in 1832 in London further highlighted the urgent need for a way round this pressing problem. Whereas in other places decrees from above provided the solution (cf. Vienna’s Central Cemetery again), in the case of London (or Paris ) it was private companies that came to the rescue … making a healthy profit in the process.