Wednesday, November 15, 2017

An Odd Tomb

St. Louis Cemetery Number 1 is the oldest cemetery in New Orleans. It is the resting place of some of the historical notables; notably former mayor Etienne de Boré, world chess champion Paul Morphy, landowner Bernard Marigny, notorious sadistic slave owner Delphine LaLaurie, and voodoo queen Marie Laveau. Not surprisingly, the above-ground graves located there are all old; no surprise since some of them were made before 1800. (A bit of local advice: Don't visit this graveyard unless you're with a tour. There's a high danger of you getting mugged there.)

Recently, a new person may have his final resting place there: the actor Nicholas Cage. He had built a pyramidal grave for his permanent resting place. This pyramid definitely makes a contrast with the typical look of tombs in St. Louis Number 1:



Old school traditional burial oven common in New Orleans cemeteries:


I can say that the Cage tomb will be a topic for discussion long-term, if for no other reason than it raises a lot of unanswerable questions. Why a pyramid?

8 comments:

John A Hill said...

i was always fascinated by New Orleans cemeteries. Interesting and creepy at the same time.

Cloudia said...

because he is an attention seeking weirdo! Hubby got to know his ways when he was filming on Oahu and bought some motorcycles from us.

Here ya go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLRfDLJLjxc

Arlee Bird said...

Those New Orleans cemeteries are fascinating to see from the highway, but you're right about that possibility of getting mugged--I've heard that same warning.

AS for the Cage pyramid, it is cinematic and attention getting so that's appropriate for someone like him. Maybe he thinks it will somehow guide him to a better afterlife kind of like the ancient Egyptians believed? Pyramids have been cited as having mystical powers. I once heard that if you keep razor blades in a pyramid they will never go dull. There might be some relation to Nicolas Cage in that, but I've never found him to be dull. I like Cage though I've heard a lot of people who say they don't.

Lee
Tossing It Out

Mike said...

Never heard the term 'burial oven' before but it makes sense.

Jono said...

Will that pyramid still be there in 3000 years?

eViL pOp TaRt said...

Thanks for your thoughts. Nicolas Cage certainly gave us an enigma.

Bilbo said...

He wants his tomb to stand out when the tourists pyramid all the other ones in the cemetery.

Elvis Wearing a Bra on His Head said...

It seems vaguely like a desecration, or one-upmanship