When it comes to making memorials for people who died, a very common
practice is using a headstone as a marker where the person is buried.
Usually, they have the name of the person, along with the date of their
birth and death. Sometimes, there is an epitaph, which is just an
inscription that embodies the person who has passed on. Then there are
the headstones that are just bizarre, shocking and downright creepy.
1. Josep Llaudet Soler
Josep Llaudet Soler. Image Source: KuriositasThis creepy statue is found in Barcelona’s Poblenou cemetery.
It is hidden in the back corner of the cemetery and it is unclear
who exactly sculpted it. However, textile manufacturer Josep Llaudet
Soler is interred at the site of the statue and the inscription is
equally as haunting:
“The blood in his veins grows cold. And all strength has gone. Faith has been extolled by his fall into the arms of death. Amen.”
Inez Clarke. Image Source: Flick River
The story goes that Inez Clarke was just 6 when she died in 1880. The
girl was killed during a storm while on a family picnic and was buried
in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois. After her death, her parents
had a life size sculpture made in the likeness of their dearly departed
daughter. It was put in a glass case to protect it from the elements.
If the statue of a young girl, wearing old-fashioned clothes in a
cemetery wasn’t frightening enough, there are many ghost
stories surrounding the grave site. People have heard weeping coming
from the area. Other people claim that during thunderstorms the statue
disappears, only to reappear later, back in its glass case.
It’s also interesting to note that it may not even be Inez Clarke
buried there, as there are no records of a girl dying and being buried
in that area. It is believed an 8-year-old boy named Amos Briggs is
actually interred at the foot of the statue.(source)
3. Fernand Arbelot
Fernand Arbelot. Image Source: My Send Off
Fernand Arbelot was an actor and musician who lived from 1880 to 1942
in France. He was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery with a very unusual
statue as a marker for his headstone. It is a man, holding a disembodied
head and staring at it. It is supposed to represent Arbelot looking
into the face of his wife for all of eternity.(source)
4. Lilly E Gray
Lilly E Gray. Image Source: Flickr
At first glance the tombstone for 77-year-old Lilly E. Gray, who was
buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery in 1958, may just look like any
other tombstone. However, there is a stark message written as the
epitaph, which is “Victim of the Beast 666”. Gray had died of natural
causes and no one is sure why that is written as her epitaph. One other
interesting thing to note is that Gray’s husband is also buried in the
same cemetery, but far away from his wife’s grave.(source)
5. The Tazacorte Martyrs Memorial
The Tazacorte Martyrs Memorial. Image Source: VisualizeUs
While this may look like a grave site that is flooded, it is in fact
an underwater memorial to a group of Jesuit missionaries who were
travelling from Portugal to Brazil in 1570. A French pirate named
Jacques Sourie boarded their ship and then he and his men killed all the
priests; some of the priests even had their limbs cut off and then were
thrown overboard. Only the cook on the ship survived the massacre.
The memorial was set up near La Palma Island, which is part of the
Canary Islands, near the area of the massacre. The memorial is 18 meters
below the surface and features 40 crosses, one for each of the victims.(source)
6. Georges Rodenbach
Georges Rodenbach. Image Source: Wikipedia
Born July 6, 1855 and dying December 25, 1898, Georges Rodenbach was a
Belgian poet and writer who worked in the Symbolism movement. Which is
probably why his tombstone in Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, France
depicts a man breaking out of the grave. While it’s meant to symbolize
how not even the bonds of death could hold him, however, it is always
kind of creepy to see a body trying to break out of a grave.(source)
7. St Vitalis of Assisi
St Vitalis of Assisi. Image Source: BBC
While not a headstone per say, this is a memorial with an actual head
in it. The skull apparently belongs to St Vitalis of Assisi, who, and
we kid you not, is the patron saint of venereal disease.
Born in 1295 and dying May 31, 1370, Vitalis was a Benedictine monk
who lived most of his life in poverty. After his death, his head was
apparently kept as a relic. Since the 17th Century, it has been housed in a Queen Anne case. In 2011, the skull was sold in an auction for 3500 euro ($4100 USD) to a movie star living in Los Angeles, California.(source)
8. The Mafia Cemeteries of Yekaterinburg, Russia
The Mafia Cemeteries of Yekaterinburg, Russia. Image Source: France 24
In Russia’s fourth largest city, Yekaterinburg, there are two
cemeteries, one at each side of the city. The cemeteries are filled with
the bodies of the cities two rival gangs; one cemetery for each gang.
The tombstones are elaborate and over-the-top, often pictures of the
dead men are etched in stone and the images are larger-than-life with
some of tombstones being 10-feet tall. The ghostly images of the young
men who died violent deaths haunt the cemetery, which is monitored
around the clock by cameras.(source)
9. The Child’s Bed
The Child’s Bed. Image Source: She Walks Softly
It was the late 19th Century and mortality rates of
children were high. One of the creepiest tombstones from the time is
found in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston. It is there, that visitors can
find a child-sized bed as a marker for a child who passed away. The
tombstone, complete with a pillow that fell off the side of the bed, has
deteriorated over the century making it a creepy and heartbreaking
memorial for someone who died too young.(source)
10. Harry Thornton
Harry Thornton. Image Source: View Finder
In the flu pandemic that ravaged the world in 1918, one of the people
who lost their lives was a British man named Harry Thornton, who was a
pianist that entertained troops during the First World War. While it may
have been a loving tribute to the 35-year-old man, the piano has since
decayed and the top of the piano has been lost. It is a haunting image
that reminds us that nothing lasts forever.(source)
Photograph courtesy Michael Nichols(National Geographic)In California Sierra Nevada, there is a 3, 200 year old sequoia tree
that rises at 247 feet and is nicknamed the President. There are two
others with wide trunks but they do not have a large crown like the
president’s. When standing forward on the top branches of the tree, one
of the scientists looks taller than other climbers.
The sequoia tree measures 45,000 cubic feet, stands at 247feet tall
and is estimated to be 3,200 years old. It has a 27 feet wide trunk and
its branches (which are mighty) hold 2 billion needles. This is the most
any tree has held in the planet. The tree also adds a cubic meter of
wood every year, which categorizes him among the world’s fastest growing
trees.
The giant Sequoias can only be found on the western slopes of Sierra
Nevada, California. The president and other smaller trees make up this
home and are above sea level at 5000-8000 ft.
The tree had for many years never been captured in its entirety.
Photographers from the National Geographic worked with a team of
scientist to do this. They used a set of levers and pulleys to scale the
tree.
They measured different heights of the trunk, limbs, burls and
branches. They counted cones and armed with this information, used
mathematical models informed by information from other sequoias. The
president, as they found out, contains 54,000 cubic feet of bark and
wood. The tree according to this team is the largest (if you take into
account its width) in the world. 32 days later the team had stitched up
126 separate photos together, to produce a breathtaking portrait of this
Sequoia tree. Chael Nichols, Ngm staff. Mosaic Composed Of 126 ImagesComposting: Ken Geiger, NGM staffClimbing Team: Jim Campbell Spickler, Giacomo Renzullo, Cameron Williams, Nolan BowmanTechnical team: Nathan Williamson; Marty Reed, Humboldt State University (HSU) Order Large Format Prints at: NationalGeographicCart.com
The president amazed the team. It’s a historical tree that has seen
generations come and go while it still stands tall and growing. It’s
been through storms, heavy rains, heavy snows, enduring cold, lightning
strikes -but it’s still growing faster than ever.
[Source: www.themindunleashed.org]
25: Earth isn't round. Centrifugal force pushes outwards at Earth's equator giving it a slight wasteline.
24:Standing on that equator you would be spinning around Earth's center
at 1000 miles per hour. At the poles, however, you would be standing
still (and turning in a circle)
23:You would still be hurling through space at 67000 miles per hour though
22:The rocks you are standing on get recycled. Volcanoes spit them out
as magma, they dry, harden, and after a very long time either get sucked
down again by plate tectonics or get pushed towards Earth's core by a
fresh layer of rocks above.
21:Speaking of magma, the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth's
surface was 136 degrees F or 57.8 degrees C in El Azizia, Libya
recorded in 1922.
20:The coldest spot was Antarctica's vostok station that recorded a
bonechilling minus 128.6 degrees fahrenheit (minus 89.2 degrees C)
19:On that note, Antarctica contains about 70 percent of Earth's fresh water and 90 percent of its ice
18:Gravity is not distributed equally. Yes, you read that right. Places
like Hudson Bay in Canada actually have less gravity than other regions
of the globe. This is due to the fact that there is less land mass in
that part of the planet thanks both to retreating glaciers on the
surface and swirling magma deep in the core.
17:Earth's magnetic north pole is moving northward at a rate of 10 miles per year
16:Eventually, our magnetic poles will switch.
15:Scientists believe Earth may have had two moons at one point in time.
14:Some scientists claim we still have two moons…in a manner of
speaking. Every now and then an asteroid will get sucked into Earth's
orbit and stick around for up to 9 months.
13:Although earthquakes are no fun, they are not the only quakes that
affect the earth. Moon quakes can actually make a difference in the
tides.
12:As cool as moon rocks are, on Earth rocks can walk. Or at least
slide. In Death Valley rocks weighing hundreds of pounds slide across
the desert floor leaving trails in their wake. Scientists believe wind
and ice are the culprits.
11.The longest mountain range on Earth is actually underwater. It is
called the mid ocean ridge system. It stretches for 80,000 km all around
the world and is nearly 20 times longer than the longest range on the
surface, the Andes Mountains. Not only that, the whole thing is
completely volcanic.
10:On the topic of volcanos, the most active erupter on Earth is
actually the Stromboli Volcano in southern Italy. For the past 2,000
years it has been erupting almost continously which has earned it the
nickname "Lighthouse of the Mediterranean.
9:Volcanos aren't the only things that explode gas and magma. Lakes do
that too. In Africa, on the borders of Cameroon, Rwanda, and the
Democractic Republic of the Congo there are several lakes that sit above
volcanic earth which results in large pockets of dangerous gas being
trapped beneath them. If they were to explode they would asphyxiate any
passersby.
8:70 percent of the planet is covered in ocean but humans have only explored 5 percent of it.
7:That's strange considering the fact that the ocean holds nearly 20
million tons of gold and Earth holds more than its share of greed.
Granted, most of the gold is diluted. Each liter of seawater contains
about 13 billionths of a gram. There is enough undissolved gold on the
sea floor though to put 9 pounds in every pocket on Earth.
6:The deepest spot on Earth is the Challenger Deep in the Mariana
Trench. It is nearly 11 km below the surface of the ocean (~7 miles) and
only 3 people have ever ventured there
5:Constructed from millions of tiny polyps, coral reefs are the largest living structures on Earth, some even visible from space.
4:They also contain the highest density of life on the planet, even more than rainforests.
3:If gold dust in your ocean water isn't cool enough for you then
consider this, everyday about 100 tons of interplanetary material fall
down onto Earth's surface primarily from the ice of comets as it
vaporizes near the sun.
2:Just to leave you with some parting food for thought, the pacific
basin contains half of the free water on Earth and could hold all of the
world's continents.
1:And one more thing. The largest single living thing (apart from
reefs constructed of multiople polyps) was a mushroom fungus in Oregon
that grew to 2,200 acres.
