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New Orleans is a swamp. It's a nice swamp and they've done a
good job of keeping the buildings standing, but it's still a
swamp. And because of these swamp like conditions in the early
days, it did not seem
like a good idea to drop a coffin in the ground only to have it floating
to the surface after the first good rain.
In this century
New Orleaneans have learned to deal with this problem by building
elaborate levy systems that will hopefully prevent flooding.
But the early French and Spanish
settlers chose to inter the dead above
ground.
They
built little villages in the cemetery with rows of 'houses' which
led to the phrase Cities of the Dead.
Crypts
were built for entire families, battalions or groups. As new
bodies arrived, the 'old' bodies were dropped to a receptacle in the
ground or stacked against the back or side walls. All in all it
was quite efficient and took up less room than traditional cemetery
plots today. People of Jewish faith believe that bodies must be
beneath the earth. To accomplish this, the grave was still built
above the ground, then covered with a layer of dirt.
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