Miami City Cemetery

Lonely Planet review

Fast fact: the first person buried in Miami was black. Depressing addendum: the first recorded burial in Miami was of a white guy. The long narrative of this troubled, diverse city is in its bones, and 'dem bones are concentrated in this eerie, quiet graveyard.

The dichotomy of history and modernity gets a nice visual representation in the form of looming condos shadowing the last abode of the Magic City's late, great ones.

More than 9000 graves are divided into separate white, black and Jewish sections, including mayors, veterans (including about 90 Confederate soldiers) and the Godmother of South Florida, Julia Tuttle herself. Note the grave of Mrs Carrie Miller, who died in 1926; her husband, William, wrapped her body in a sheet and encased it in a concrete block 6ft high. 'After the body has gone to dust, her sleeping form will remain,' reads the epitaph. William apparently wanted to join his wife eventually, but died broke after the Great Depression. He's buried in an unmarked plot nearby.