# Where are all of the dead people? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 22, 2010, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-of-the-dead-people/529929 "2010-02-22T00:42:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-of-the-dead-people/529929/21 "2010-02-22T13:21:35Z")
> [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](#): > > I happen to know that some 87,000 people are buried in the 16 acre [General Cemetery in Sheffield](http://www.gencem.org/past_pre_fut/index.html)(65,000 square metres) giving some 1.3 metres squared per person You’ve got your divisor and dividend backwards, and also “square metres” is not the same thing as “metres squared”. In Sheffield it would be about 0.747 square metres per body. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-of-the-dead-people/529929/22 "2010-02-22T14:34:10Z")
> [@SecTech](#): > > I presume you are not saying that Toledo, Ohio is (or should be) the world’s cemetary. Never been there on a [Saturday night](http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/j/johndenver2053/toledo97662.html), have you? ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-of-the-dead-people/529929/23 "2010-02-22T14:37:36Z")
> [@dragoncat](#): > > Well in Guanajuato, Mexico, they are in [a museum](http://www.mummytombs.com/mummylocator/group/guanajuato.htm). 🙂 Uhh, creepy! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-of-the-dead-people/529929/24 "2010-02-22T16:13:50Z")
If you are eve in Paris, take a walk through their “Catacombs”. Not the same as Roman Empire times, these were the limestone mines where they excavated the blocks for all the big buildings like the Louvre. (Tunneling instead of open pit in the days before Caterpillar) After the revolution, the government decided the overcrowded parish cemetaries were unhealthy and a waste of valuable space, so they tranferred the remains to these tunnels. you can walk for a mile or more in a maze past bones piled 6 feet high and 15 feet back on each side. That’s just Paris for 1000 years. Some famous people are in there, but all that’s left is markers indicated which parish the bones came from. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-of-the-dead-people/529929/25 "2010-02-22T22:22:11Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > embalmed corpses sealed in elaborate rot-resistant coffins Don’t hermetically sealed coffins actually cause bodies to decay \*more \*quickly/spectacularly than ones that aren’t airtight? ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-of-the-dead-people/529929/26 "2010-02-23T18:11:42Z")
A common practice in Venezuela is that you buy a cemetery plot. It has brick-lined walls and fits 3 coffins stacked on top of each other. After a certain time from the last burial (I want to say 35 years, but I am not sure), they will empty it, place all the bones in “osariums” which is a pretty word for a cloth bag with the bones for one person inside. Put the osariums at the bottom and you can now reuse the plot for 3 more burials. Each plot has a large tombstone for the 3 “current” occupants and small bricks with the names of the osariums at the bottom. What this all means is that you end up with a lot of people buried in one little plot. Saves a lot of room and makes cemetery visits a lot shorter and easier for the surviving relatives. You just have to agree not to travel in large groups to prevent a catastrophic accident making a mess of your cemetery arrangements. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-of-the-dead-people/529929/27 "2010-02-23T19:27:54Z")
**Where are all of the dead people?** Same place as all the dead pigeons. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-of-the-dead-people/529929/28 "2010-02-23T19:43:13Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Don’t hermetically sealed coffins actually cause bodies to decay \*more \*quickly/spectacularly than ones that aren’t airtight? Yup. Turns 'em into goo. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-of-the-dead-people/529929.md?page=1)