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Of course that cemetery really sticks out but when we went back to the UK last summer I spent an afternoon with a mate photographing Norwood Cemetery in South London. The weather was quite the opposite of our time in Kolkata, a typical English summer: overcast, drizzly and foreboding. It suited the atmosphere perfectly! It's bigger than South Park St Cemetery and also sits on a hill that allows some views of London, whereas Kolkata's is completely hidden under that canopy of tropical foliage. I got some great photographs that afternoon but I'm realising that no matter what the cemetery, there's always a good capture lurking somewhere amongst those gravestones.

I know Highgate Cemetery well because I used to live in that neck of the woods.  I love the place especially when the weather is grey, but my favourite cemetery is Pere Lachaise in Paris.  I like walking there especially in spring.

When I saw this title, I thought, ‘what a ludicrous question’. Then I thought ‘hooooold on’ as, in fact, there are a number of cemetaries/gravesites that I’ve found remarkable for various reasons!
 
Firstly, Arlington Cemetery in Washington. Perfectly aligned rows of white stones stretching as far as you can see – it is beautifully administered and there is a real sense of respect there. At the grave of the unknown soldier, the USMC (US Marine Corps) do a drill on the hour, every hour, 24/7, and as for JFK’s resting place – what a view! Right o top of the hill overlooking Capitol Hill and the Washington monument.
 
Secondly – I actually made what you could call a pilgrimage to the grave of Jorge Luis Borges in Geneva – in the Chambres Mortuaires de Plainpalais. A rough-hewn grave with a phrase written in old English - And ne forhtedon na (And that they feared not) on the front, and, on the back ‘ a line from the Volksung saga ‘He took his sword, Gram, and put the naked metal between them". There’s also seven Viking soldiers pictured on the front, which, apparently, is testament to the sacking of a monastery at Lindisfarne in ad.733 by the Vikings.
 
I’ve read that Borges only wanted his birthdate on his gravestone, and his wife put this rather cryptic stuff on. However, it does seem appropriately Borgesian.
 
Thirdly – I went to Jersey last year and they have a couple of Neolithic burial sites. One, La Hogue Bie, was used about 3500BC – (this is from Wikipedia – my notes are at home!) – in fact – here you go – save me typing it all up! It’s an interesting site and well worth looking at.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Hougue_Bie
 
Fourthly – the Killing Fields of Cambodia at Choeung Ek were a sobering visit. I’ve had the misfortune to be near a ‘fresh’ mass grave in the Balkans in the 90s, but the fields at Choeung Ek were a very poignant experience indeed.
 
Finally -  my ‘favourite’ is the Bonetta Cemetary on Ascension island. I posted an Experience about this years ago, and I’ll find it and re-post it now. You’ll have to Google the pictures as I’ve been having problems uploading them to Experiences. Alternatively, you can go here and see them on my Flickr site - http://www.flickr.com/photos/sergeantpluck/page17/ - bottom of page 17/top of 18.

Thanks, Pluck, for all that information, I'm glad you decided the question was worth considering! Just read your piece on Ascension and I now want to go there. (I wonder if we'll ever make it on Esper?)

The war cemeteries look incredibly moving in photos and on film. I can only imagine the emotion one must feel when there.

If we broaden it out to include memorials, then I would say it is impossible to spend any time in the Gandhi Smriti without inhaling the loss the nation must have felt when the great man was shot and killed here: so moving and tragic.

Pere Lachaise is a great tip, Jean, thanks.

My favourite (abroad) is in Punta Arenas, Chilean Patagonia. It has beautiful topiary trees and tombs and graves that tell you so much about the history of the region (lots of eastern Europeans, from sheep trading, I think), which are quite unexpected.

As for closer to home, I love Brompton Cemetary (Chelsea/Earl's Court). It's pretty smal, but beautiful - not only the architecture but the trees and ivy. Plus my friend's mother is buried there. Pere Lachaise is pretty impressive - beautiful too.

BTW, for you photographers there are a couple of flickr groups dedicated to cemetery pics.

@ Sophie. Oh yes, Brompton Cemetery! I used to live round the corner in Coleherne Mews in a previous life, and would walk through the cemetery to get to the Fulham Road. On match days scruffy Herberts would hang out on the wall, trying to see Stamford Bridge (you could always hear when Chelsea scored). Yes, really lovely one.

Scruffy Herberts! - we call them the Smurfs! I live on the other side of the football ground on the New Kings Road, so see the Smurfs all the time - you can always tell when it's a match day - the demographic changes considerably in Parsons Green!

The best places in life - are the ones you stumble on accidently, I find.

 In Barcelona, we were walking down Montjuic when we saw what looked like a housing development of highrise flats on the hillside. As we got closer, we realised, what we were seeing weren't blocks of flats but graveyards! It was the 'city of the dead'.
Montjuic cemetery is one of the strangest places I ever seen. The cemetery is 56 hectares with more than a million graves. These are huge stone constructions with towers of graves. Families with graves on the top levels need to use ladders that are strategically placed around the graveyard.
The place is full of history too. Joan Miro was buried at Montjuic. Also more than 4,000 republicans and Catalan nationalists were buried in the common grave of the “Fossar de la Pedrera” after their execution by Franco’s forces.

I'll post a couple of pictures so you can see what it looks like.

Highgate is great for photography, went there years ago with our camera club. 

My friend gives walking tours round Highgate Cemetery so he would be a bit grumpy that I'll answer Recoleta in Buenos Aires!

I have enjoyed visiting many cemeteries over the years; but I've an awful memory and don't remember which/ where for most of them.

Famous ones like Pere Lachaise and Highgate don't always do that much for me, probably because there are often so many people around...

Often it's the small, local ones that strike a chord. Driving around France and here in the UK, we've sometimes stopped and taken a moment to look. In France, I like those tiny rural ones, small square plots surrounded by a wall and with a single gate in.

In Islay, the old Kildalton parish church has a beautiful cemetery, featuring a stunning Celtic cross. And there's the ancient graves at Loch Finlaggan which is an incredible place to visit... both times I've been my tiny group of friends have had the place to ourselves. It's beautiful and atmospheric. But probably my favourite place there is Kilnave which boasts a ruined little church and tiny graveyard sat amid greenery, with the most astonishing view out over the water.

Although I've said I don't love the popular places, I did really enjoy a visit to Buenos Aires famous Recoleta cemetery. Firmly on the tourist trail but I found it beautiful.

This year we're visiting Japan for the first time. I'm going to visit Nara and Koya San, both of which I understand have shrines or monasteries and associated graveyards which friends have said are beautiful, peaceful places.