Mount Auburn Cemetery

Mount Auburn Cemetery in Massachusetts, was founded in 1831 as "America's first garden cemetery" or "rural cemetery". With classical monuments set in a rolling landscaped terrain, it marked a distinct break with Colonial-era burying grounds and church-affiliated graveyards. The appearance of this type of landscape coincides with the rising popularity of the term "cemetery", derived from the Greek for "a sleeping place." This language and outlook eclipsed the previous harsh view of death and the afterlife embodies by old graveyards and church burial plots. The 174-acre (70 ha) cemetery is important both for its historical aspects and for its role as an arboretum. Most of the cemetery is located in Watertown, Massachusetts, though the 1843 granite Egyptian revival entrance lies in neighboring Cambridge, adjacent to the Cambridge City and Sand Banks Cemeteries.