Conspicuous wealth isn’t limited to life on earth, it seems. There are many amazing examples of architectural masterpieces built for the afterlife. While much of the focus is often on the tributes to single individuals–Lenin, Sun Yat Sen–or creepy crypts full of skulls and bones, we’d like to highlight the cemetery cities we’ve been coming across recently. From a distance, some of these may look simply like a suburban residential neighborhood. Look closer, and you’ll realize they’re cities of the dead.
6. Jardin del Humaya Cemetery, Cuilacan, Sinaloa Mexico
In the capital of Sinaloa, an area dominated by drug cartels, the Jardin del Humaya Cemetery is a prized destination in death. An aspiring resident says in the documentary Narco Cultura, “Out of every thousand f-ers, only one gets here.” And once they are here, they live in death as they did in life, in suburban-looking houses with bullet proof glass, air conditioning and spot lighting, just to name some of the comforts. Some request to be buried with their souped up pick-up trucks.
A whole industry of construction and maintenance has sprung up to keep up with the every increasing rate of new burials from the drug war, and like in life, the battle for the more sumptuous house just keeps getting more competitive. Scattered in the midst however, are the tombs of lower ranking cartel members, who sometimes get next to no decoration–but are happy just to be included in this exclusive cemetery.