1. Underwater Cemetery (Miami, USA)



The Neptune Memorial Reef also known as the Atlantis Memorial Reef or the Atlantis Reef is an underwater mausoleum for cremated remains and the world's largest man-made reef (covering over 600,000 square feet (56,000 m²) of ocean floor). The place was chosen at 3.25 miles (either 6.0 km or 5.2 km) off the coast of Key Biscayne, Florida. It is a type of burial at sea and the first phase is estimated to be able to accommodate 850 remains, with an eventual goal of more than 125,000 remains. The man-made reef, located three miles (5 km) off the coast of Florida's Key Largo, opened in 2007 after a number of difficulties, including permits. The reef stretches across 16 acres (65,000 m2) of ocean floor designed as both a home for sea life and "a destination for divers". Cremated remains are mixed into different structures and columns.
 
Among its residents: 86-year-old Edith Hink of Naples who passed away last year. Her family decided she loved the water so much, they'd try something new. Hink was cremated and buried at the underwater cemetery off the coast of Miami Beach

2. Sucre's General Cemetery (Bolivia)



In Bolivia, at the Sucre's Cementerio General, the family pays for a vault upon their loved one's demise: $10,000 for seven years. After those seven years are up, the deceased's corpse is moved from the vault into the ground. And after twenty years in the ground, the remains are removed entirely. Seems kind of harsh, but still: there are probably very few people whose deaths need more than 27 years of mourning.
 
Men are often buried with their workmates, betraying how tightly bound a Bolivian's identity is to his profession. Here, they're not so much family men who happen to work as truck drivers; they're truck drivers who happen to have a family. In Sucre's cemetery, large common vaults owned by unions — coal miners, lawyers and teachers among them — occupy a lot of ground. Likewise, children aren't buried with their parents, but with other children under a large hill of white graves, which is both beautiful and sad. The kids' shrines are filled with Disney characters, coke bottles, toys and poems. Adults, too, have shrines filled with the things they loved — often tiny liquor bottles, or a pack of cigarettes.
 
There's a lot of history in Sucre's cemetery, as well. Among the many presidents buried here is Hilarión Daza, who sparked the disastrous War of the Pacific with Chile, which cost Bolivia its coastline.