Cities of the Dead and Vampire Tales: New Orleans, Louisiana

Unsolved Mystery.-St. Louis Cemetery Number 1 - Zuko.com  1998The centuries-old, above ground cemeteries of New Orleans, are icons to an earlier time.  These hauntingly beautiful cities of the dead came into existence due to the unusually high water table under the old city.  The soggy earth made under ground burial impossible before modern drainage systems were devised.
On dark stormy nights it was not uncommon for caskets to literally pop out of the ground and float down the streets.  Of course, this was quite unsettling for the residents, and after a few unpleasant incidences of the dead floating by their homes, above ground burial was agreed to as the only secure sane solution. 
These eerily beautiful and unique cemeteries have also served as an inspiration
to numerous film producers and authors of the macabre.  For example, Anne Rice one of New Orleans' more famous resident authors, in crafting her haunting, gothic horror stories of vampires and the undead.  Interview With The Vampire, The Vampire Chronicles, a spellbinding screen adaptation of Anne Rices best seller, was filmed with Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 as the backdrop.  This ornate gothic necropolis figures prominently in Annes other books, as the macabre refuge of the vampire Lestat.

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